HENRICO CITIZEN

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger is leading a multi-member effort calling on the IRS to explain its lack of telework capabilities for its customer service employees.

Following the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, millions of Americans have received economic impact payments.

The IRS’s “Get My Payment” tool was created to provide timely information on the status of these payments, but Spanberger said, there is no additional resource for people who don’t receive information from the tool.

The IRS has not instituted teleworking operations for its customer service representatives since the coronavirus pandemic began.

“Although the Get My Payment tool was created to provide information on the status of these economic impact payments, this tool has been an unusable resource for many of our constituents,” wrote Spanberger and 10 Congressional colleagues in a May 6 letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig.

Additionally, Spanberger and her colleagues called on the IRS to share information to Congress about any obstacles it’s facing in expanding telework capabilities.

“If this inability to engage in telework is an active choice, we ask the agency to provide their rationale for this choice,” the group wrote.

Spanberger and the others asked the Rettig to direct the IRS to take swift action to help alleviate concerns from taxpayers across the country.