CBS19

The income tax filing season is underway but it did get a late start, with the Internal Revenue Service beginning to accept returns on Feb. 12.

Additionally, the IRS is still facing backlogs of millions of 2019 returns, which means many people are still waiting for refunds from their 2019 returns and some are awaiting their stimulus payments that would have been based on their 2019 returns.

Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig calling on the agency to extend the filing deadline for 2020 returns to July 15, as had been done last year.

“The ongoing backlog of 2019 tax returns, the insufficient capacity of IRS customer service phone lines, and the hundreds of thousands of CP59 notices sent to taxpayers who the IRS claimed did not file a 2019 tax return have only exacerbated the lack of clarity surrounding tax filing this year,” she said. “This confusion, and the corresponding challenges related to an insufficient ability to plan and save, has been compounded by a condensed filing season that didn’t even begin until Feb. 12, 16 days later than tax season began last year.”

Spanberger says extended the deadline will help eliminate some anxiety by providing people more time to plan for payments if they owe any money.

She also says it would allow the IRS to provide stimulus checks and outstanding refunds from 2019, which will simplify the filing process for this year.

To read the full letter, click here.