Congressman Markwayne Mullin (OK-02) sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today, pressing Commissioner Charles Rettig on the massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns preventing hard-working men and women from receiving refunds to which they are entitled. Additionally, Mullin criticized the Biden Administration’s proposal to expand the IRS and award the agency $80 billion to do so, despite their failure to use unobligated funds from the American Rescue Plan. 

Full text of the letter can be found here and below.

Dear Commissioner Rettig, 

As you are aware, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is in crisis with a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, and unanswered phone calls. Bureaucratic delays are preventing hard-working men and women from receiving the refunds to which they are entitled. Back home in Oklahoma, I routinely encounter frustrated and angry constituents, as the Taxable Year 2021 (TY2021) massive tax filing season disaster continues.  

As of February 2022, there were almost 24 million unprocessed tax returns and correspondence filed in 2021 and 2022. The IRS is still processing tax returns filed in April 2021 for TY2020. The IRS received 282 million phone calls in 2021, but only answered 11 percent of those calls.  

Despite Democrats’ calls for unprecedented increases in IRS appropriations, the IRS has over $1 billion in unobligated funds that it received last year from the American Rescue Plan. Further still, for months House Republicans have been sounding the alarm about TY2020, TY2021, and demanding answers from IRS officials about the backlog, call volume, and administration of monthly Child Tax Credit payments. 

The solution to the current IRS operational crisis is not an increase in appropriations from Congress. For that matter, spending more taxpayer dollars is Democrats’ go-to answer for almost any challenge faced by a government agency. Sadly, the Biden Administration is not doing the IRS any favors. You will recall the fact that last fall, President Joe Biden proposed spending $80 billion on a new army of IRS agents to audit hard-working Americans.

Further still, this Administration wanted to force local banks to report on the gross transactions of their personal and business bank accounts and proclaimed doing so was necessary to address the IRS’ estimate of unpaid taxes. There is very little evidence suggesting the IRS’ “tax gap” estimate is accurate, given that it is based on years-old data, wild guesses on foreign transactions, cryptocurrency, unknowable concealed income, and other sectors. In the wake of this covert spying attempt, I believe that the American people are justifiably apprehensive when it comes to the true intentions of the IRS. 

Every American must pay their taxes, and I understand that processing those taxes takes time. Similarly, every American must put food on the table. It is my sincere hope that you are doing everything in your power to process your backlog of returns as quickly and efficiently as possible during trying times like these.