In 2001, the IRS needed more than six weeks to issue the first rebates authorized by President George W. Bush’s tax cut. In 2008, the IRS issued its first payments to fight the Great Recession nearly three months after Bush signed off on them.
Since then, the agency has suffered a decade of austerity. Its budget is now 20% smaller when adjusted for inflation than it was in the 2010 fiscal year, according to the advocate’s office. Staffing has also fallen 20%, to 73,550 employees.
The IRS has struggled to find employees who can work with the COBOL language that underpins a computer system first set up in 1968, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Now it must figure out how to staff its processing centers at a time when local authorities are urging people to stay home. On its website, the IRS is asking taxpayers not to call its hot lines with questions about the direct payments.
The agency said last week that it is closing its 300-plus in-person assistance centers but would continue to process tax returns and help taxpayers “to the greatest extent possible.”
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