In early February, the IRS announced the suspension of more than a dozen additional letters, including the mailing of automated collection notices normally issued when a taxpayer owes additional tax, and the IRS has no record of a taxpayer filing a tax return.

As the IRS goes into the 2021 tax season, there are still several million original and amended returns filed by individuals and businesses that have not been processed due to challenges of the historic pandemic and is taking this step to help avoid confusion for taxpayers and tax professionals.

Some taxpayers and tax professionals may still receive these notices during the next few weeks. Generally, there is no need to call or respond to the notice as the IRS continues to process prior year tax returns as quickly as possible. However, if a taxpayer or tax professional believes a notice is accurate, they should act to rectify the situation for the well-being of the taxpayer. For example, the IRS cautions people with a balance due that interest and penalties can continue to accrue. In addition, IRS employees may in select circumstances issue notices to particular taxpayers to resolve specific compliance issues. The IRS does not have the authority to stop all notices as many are legally required to be issued within a certain timeframe. The IRS will continue to assess other changes and system modifications that the IRS may be able to implement to assist taxpayers on an array of issues. The IRS will continue to make information available to taxpayers throughout the filing season. The IRS encourages those who have a filing requirement and have yet to file a prior year tax return or to pay any tax due to promptly do so as interest and penalties will continue to accrue.

IRS Link – https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-continues-work-to-help-taxpayers-suspends-mailing-of-additional-letters

Additionally, according to the leader of the union that represents most of the IRS workforce, the IRS plans to hire 10,000 new full-time workers to reduce the backlog of millions of unprocessed tax returns and other mail from individual and business taxpayers

Politico.com article – https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/04/irs-aims-to-hire-10-000-workers-to-reduce-crippling-mail-backlog-00014193