The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) released a report providing interim results for the 2018 federal tax filing season. As of March 2, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had received approximately 61 million tax returns and issued over 48 million refunds totaling almost $148 billion.
TIGTA identified several problems in the current filing season. The IRS identified 9,557 tax returns claiming approximately $46 million in fraudulent refunds, but prevented issuing less than half of those funds (48.3 percent, or $22.2 million). Taxpayers also received $829.3 million in erroneous Advanced Premium Tax Credits, of which $261.9 million is not required to be repaid.
The IRS has expanded its self-assistance options for taxpayers to finds answers to tax-related questions, including the IRS2Go app, YouTube channels, social media, and interactive tools at IRS.gov. Taxpayers have made roughly 33 million calls to the IRS’ customer service lines; automated systems answered approximately 11.8 million of those calls, and live responders have answered almost 6.4 million calls.
To read TIGTA’s full interim report, click here.
