The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has launched a new page aimed at providing “special alerts” to let taxpayers know about changes to how taxes work ahead of tax season. 

The page includes “a variety of information and developments for people preparing their tax return, awaiting processing of a return or refund and the latest updates on IRS letters, or notices,” the agency said. The most recent ones include, most recently, the IRS’ recent suspension of more than a dozen automated notices. 

"The IRS is taking numerous steps to keep this tax season going smoothly while also taking additional action to address the inventory of tax returns filed last year," IRS commissioner Chuck Rettig said in the release. "We're off to a good start processing tax returns and issuing refunds. But we want people to have an easy way to see the latest information. This new page provides a one-stop shop for the latest key information people and the tax community may need.”

The IRS is reportedly facing a challenging tax season, with the agency stating that it is understaffed and underfunded, leading to the possibility of delayed tax refunds this year. The IRS’ Taxpayer Advocate Service released a report last year called 2021 “the most challenging year ever for taxpayers,” due to refund delays, telephone customer service that’s “the worst it’s ever been,” and trouble with the Where’s My Refund? tool. 

The Hill recently published an op-ed piece on “How to douse the IRS dumpster fire,” listing ways for the IRS to deal with this year’s “bleak” outlook. The op-ed was authored by Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute. According to Edwards, along with the pandemic, the problems have been brought about by a lack of funding, as well as repeated changes made by Congress that have made taxes more complicated with each passing year. 

“For each change, the IRS must create or modify tax forms and guides, program its computers, communicate changes to the public, and take steps to prevent abuse. Each law change can prompt millions of queries from taxpayers, which in turn consumes more IRS resources in response,” Edwards wrote. His argument is to make the tax code simpler. The Democrats, per the article, should abandon the Build Back Better legislation, while the Republicans should “put tax simplification back on their agenda.” This was a frequent part of GOP messaging in the 1990s and early 2000s, but less so more recently.

“Getting rid of narrow breaks and moving toward a flat tax would douse the IRS dumpster fire and save individuals and businesses billions of hours in annual compliance time. In this election year, tax simplification would be a winning issue for the GOP,” Edwards recommends. 

 Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.