Help for those awaiting refunds
Good news for waiting for 2020 unemployment tax refunds from IRS
There’s some potentially good news for the unknown number of Americans – but potentially millions – waiting for their 2020 unemployment tax refunds from the IRS.
The best news would be if all of those who have been waiting almost two years would have their refunds in hand.
The next best news, especially in the wake of most who are just waiting without many updates, is that the consumer advocacy arm of the IRS will accept their applications to help them get their refunds.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent within the IRS that “helps taxpayers resolve their IRS account issues, advocates on behalf of taxpayers, and works towards systemic change to mitigate taxpayer problems,” according to the information on its website.
National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins acknowledged in a blog post that there are under 8 million tax returns in the IRS backlog. Those returns are on hold for a multitude of reasons and no one knows for sure how many are in the same predicament as retired Beacon Journal columnist Bob Dyer and others I’ve featured in previous columns. But it’s believed to potentially be in the millions.
The official answer from the IRS isn’t much of an answer. They say they know there’s an “unknown number” of people waiting and there’s no update on the timeline.
What is going on ?
On Feb. 19, 2021, Dyer filed his federal taxes electronically. He owed $2,559 and mailed in a check, which was promptly cashed, he said.
In the summer of 2020, Dyer and other employees of Beacon Journal and Gannett, our corporate parent, had to take several one-week furloughs. We filed for unemployment benefits for those furlough weeks.
On March 11, 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which among other things allowed taxpayers to exclude from taxable income up to $10,200 in unemployment compensa
tion paid in 2020 if your modified adjusted gross income was less than $150,000.
But taxpayers affected by this change were told not to amend their taxes if they had already filed.
The IRS said it would automatically refund money – or apply the refund to tax debts – for people who already filed their tax return reporting unemployment compensation as taxable income.
Dyer in August got a letter replying to his May 2022 inquiry that the IRS needed another 60 days. In October, he got another letter saying the IRS needed 60 days.
What’s new?
I received a follow-up email from the public relations contact at the Taxpayer Advocate Service in Washington, D.C., I had been working with her to confirm whether the agency could help people like Dyer and others.
From the Frequently Asked Questions I found on the advocate’s website, it did not appear that Dyer and others were eligible for assistance.
However, the media contact confirmed the Taxpayer Advocate Service can now help taxpayers who are still waiting for their unemployment tax refund if the automated process didn’t work.
“TAS didn’t take UI (unemployment insurance) exclusion cases while the IRS was in the early stages of adjusting accounts through automation, but we began to accept them when the IRS had largely completed its process and it seemed likely a taxpayer whose account was not adjusted had fallen through the (automated) cracks,” the media contact told me.
I also received a phone message from Marlene Fitts, the Taxpayer Advocate for the service’s Cleveland office. Fitts said she had read my column and wanted to know if I could help her get in touch with Dyer so her office could help him.
After independently confirming she was legitimate – Dyer and I both said it would be a bad thing if the consumer columnist got the former columnist with an attitude scammed – I connected Dyer and Fitts.
Fitts said the Taxpayer Advocate Service can only help if the “automated processes didn’t work.” In other words, for taxpayers who filed their original 2020 taxes as normal and then found out they could get a refund for unemployment based on the updated rules but were told to leave things alone and not amend anything.
Still have to wait for a ‘routine refund’
Dyer said he was grateful some help might be on the way, but he’s still frustrated.
“Well, the good news is that Ms. Fitts called me back promptly and was polite and apologetic. The bad news: She said it ‘could take a few months to resolve,’” he said.
“She gave me the name of a case advocate in her office and said the advocate would call me on Dec. 16 to give me an update on where things stand.
“I really do appreciate that she has gotten involved, but the bottom line for me is that after waiting 21 months, it is STILL going to take another two or three months for them to process a routine refund. Helluva way to run a railroad.”
Who do you contact if you still need help?
Find the Taxpayer Advocate Service office closest to you. The website is www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/contact-us/. If you have a different individual problem with the IRS, the service may also be able to help. More details are on the website to help you determine if you can register a complaint. All services are free.
What’s the turnaround time?
The national site for the Taxpayer Advocate Service says there is a possibility it may take up to four weeks to initially respond to an inquiry due to a “high volume of assistance requests due to tax return processing delays.”
Fitts said her Cleveland office may take up to three months to complete a case, but they are pretty much caught up now, so they should be able to respond to cases as they come in.
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ALASKA Juneau: The Division of Elections said some ballots from six rural villages were not counted in the November elections, Alaska Beacon reports, as they were not delivered to the state election headquarters before certification.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Arizona Attorney General’s Office requested the state Supreme Court issue a warrant of execution for death row inmate Aaron Gunches.
ARKANSAS Earle: An 18-year-old college student has been elected to serve as mayor, becoming one of the youngest people to serve as a city’s top leader in the U.S.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A mountain lion tracked by biologists in the mountains gave birth over the summer to four healthy kittens, officials said.
COLORADO Pueblo: With soil sampling 98% complete at the Colorado Smelter Superfund Site, the Environmental Protection Agency seeks to finish its residential cleanup by spring 2024, if not sooner.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Most eligible residents of the state with certain cannabis possession convictions – roughly 44,000 cases – should have their records automatically erased within 60 days, or about a month longer than expected under a state law taking effect Jan. 1, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
DELAWARE Bridgeville: An 83-yearold man died in a two-car crash, Delaware State Police said.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Authorities say an off-duty FBI agent fatally shot a man at the Metro Center after an alleged altercation, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: The Florida Supreme Court is considering a case that will decide whether police officers who use deadly force can remain anonymous under a law designed to protect crime victims.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Two teenagers were in custody on charges linked to a shooting that left a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old dead, authorities said.
HAWAII Honolulu: About a week and a half since the Mauna Loa volcano began erupting, officials continue to brace for slow-moving lava to intersect with a crucial Big Island road, even though scientists are not sure when or even if that will happen.
IDAHO Boise: A retired longtime police captain whose ties to a white supremacist group have prompted an in-depth investigation of potential racism at the Boise Police Department filed a discrimination complaint against the city in November.
ILLINOIS Springfield: A new 730 area code overlaying the current 618 area code will be introduced in southern Illinois next year, the Illinois Commerce Commission announced.
INDIANA Fort Wayne: Officials violated the state’s public records laws by not releasing police body camera footage and other records related to the drunken driving arrest of the city’s mayor, the state’s public access counselor says.
IOWA Sioux City: City officials were able to get the people planning a rally featuring former President Donald Trump to pay a $5,000 bill the day before last month’s event, but the city is still waiting on the U.S. Secret Service and event planners to reimburse more than $11,000 in other rally costs.
KANSAS Oberlin: Six newspapers and a shopper have been sold to brothers from Washington and Montana, The Oberlin Herald reported.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Officials have introduced a new construction management scholarship for students to attend any of five state schools.
LOUISIANA Shreveport: A former police officer has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for kicking a suspect in the face, the U.S. Justice Department said.
MAINE Augusta: The Maine House selected Democrat Rachel Talbot Ross to be its first Black speaker in a vote witnessed by her father, who made history himself 50 years ago by becoming the first Black person elected to the Legislature in the nation’s whitest state.
MARYLAND District Heights: A high school student was shot and wounded during a fight near the football stadium on school grounds, officials said.
MASSACHUSETTS Nantucket: A bylaw that allows anyone to go topless on Nantucket’s beaches has been approved by the state attorney general’s office.
MICHIGAN Grand Rapids: A white police officer who shot and killed a Black motorist during a traffic stop last spring had no reason to pull him over, attorneys for the motorist’s family said after filing a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The U.S. Senate has confirmed Jerry Blackwell – one of the prosecutors who helped convict Derek Chauvin of murder in the killing of George Floyd – as the next federal judge in Minnesota.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A federal judge has ruled that he will not block the state from carrying out next week’s execution of an inmate who is suing the state over its use of three drugs for lethal injections.
MISSOURI Kansas City: The ACLU of Missouri is suing a school district over its policy of automatically removing any challenged library material before it is reviewed.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Gov. Jim Pillen announced he will stay at his primary residence for his first term rather than the Governor’s Mansion, the Omaha World-Herald reports.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: An estimated 2.9 million people are expected to visit the state this winter and spend about $1.3 billion, the state’s division of travel and tourism development said.
NEW JERSEY Perth Amboy: People are raising questions about a storm protection proposal for New Jersey and New York that would be among the most massive and costly flood control projects ever in America.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Police have released surveillance footage of last month’s fatal shooting on the University of New Mexico campus.
NEW YORK Cazenovia: Cazenovia College will permanently close at the end of the academic year, citing financial hardships worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.
NORTH CAROLINA Moore County: Duke Energy completed repairs on electric substation equipment damaged in shootings over the weekend.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Gov. Doug Burgum unveiled a proposed $18.4 billion budget that increases state spending by more than 3% and includes $3 billion in infrastructure funding, and increases workforce development funding and public employee salaries.
OHIO Columbus: The latest proposal to give the state’s governor more power overseeing K-12 education cleared the Republican-led Senate.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A man convicted in the slayings of an elderly couple in 2003 and sentenced to die should not be spared from the death sentence, a state board decided.
OREGON Salem: Gov. Kate Brown is extending a state of emergency as a surge of respiratory illnesses in adults and children strains hospitals.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: A state panel narrowly approved new definitions of sex, religious creed and race in the state’s anti-discrimination regulations.
RHODE ISLAND Exeter: A series of complaints filed with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission has led to fines and scrutiny of several public officials.
SOUTH CAROLINA Ridgeway: Duke Energy said it found no sign of property damage at a hydropower station where gunfire was reported nearby.
SOUTH DAKOTA Harrisburg: Two people have died and a third is seriously injured after a pickup truck collided with a train, the South Dakota State Patrol said.
TENNESSEE Memphis: The utility company in the city said it has rejected a 20-year contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority but will remain the power provider’s largest customer for the “foreseeable future.”
TEXAS Dallas: A 12-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run car crash that killed an 82-year-old woman, police said.
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VERMONT Montpelier: A new $9 million state program will help moderate-income Vermonters make their homes more energy efficient by allowing people to pay for weatherization projects in their utility bills, officials said.
VIRGINIA Charlottesville: A University of Virginia student accused of fatally shooting three UVA football players and wounding two other students made his first in-person appearance in court.
WASHINGTON Federal Way: Attorney General Bob Ferguson is suing a gun shop, saying it unlawfully sold highcapacity magazines to investigators during a compliance operation.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The airport in the capital city has landed more than $700,000 in state grants to match federal money for projects to improve the facility’s runway.
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WYOMING Jackson: Law enforcement and health professionals are partnering on a co-response program they hope will better help people facing mental health issues, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports.