The IRS announced that it aims to hire 10,000 employees over the next few months and deploy a new 700-person “surge” team to help clear its backlog of 24 million tax returns. It also intends to extend high-tech customer support tools throughout its operations. The U.S. Dept. of Treasury added that the agency also is requiring mandatory overtime work for more than 6,000 employees processing original returns, and overtime pay is available for some 10,000 other employees. However, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said that while the “surge” strategy is necessary, it isn’t a long-term solution to the problem, and planned hiring won’t ease the burden during the current filing season. www.mjscpa.com/
