According to Federal News Network based on an internal memo they’ve seen, human error-checkers at the processing center in Kansas City are going to have a rough two weeks ahead:
This year’s tax filing season is over, but the IRS is setting mandatory weekend overtime hours for some employees to process tax returns flagged with possible errors.
IRS Input Correction Operation (ICO) employees at the submission processing center in Kansas City, who are trained to resolve several types of common tax-return errors, will have to work eight hours of mandatory overtime on the weekends of Saturday, May 10 and Saturday, May 17.
IRS Operation Manager Latifah Hisham said in the memo that “ALL minimally and fully successful” staff are required to put in 16 hours of overtime this upcoming and next weekend. They can pull overtime during the week as well but are not required to do so. “Remember, if we do not make a sizable dent in the ERS rejects … inventory, there is the possibility of additional required overtime,” she said.
When a tax return is flagged it then goes through the Error Resolution System (ERS) and, from there, may require manual check by a living, breathing person. The National Taxpayer Advocate explains what happens after that here:
There are three possible outcomes for returns being reviewed by ERS. The best possible outcome for taxpayers is that the information on the return is verified and the refund is released. The other two possibilities could potentially result in further delays and may require critical action on the part of the taxpayer. If the error is identified under IRC § 6213(g), the IRS, using its math error authority under IRC § 6213(b), can summarily assess math or clerical errors appearing on a return, which may reduce the amount of the refund issued or increase tax due. Any increase of the tax liability will be assessed without issuing a statutory notice of deficiency. If the taxpayer disagrees with this assessment, he or she must request an abatement within 60 days from when the notice was sent, thereby initiating normal deficiency procedures. Failure to request abatement during the 60-day time period will result in the tax remaining assessed and will bar the taxpayer from disputing the liability in the U.S. Tax Court, the only forum not requiring the taxpayer to pay the tax before litigation.
As of this time last year, the IRS had sent about five million math error notices in 2024, some of which covered prior tax years.
The IRS does now have an automated ERS tool called FixERS that, according to a March 2024 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report [PDF], “systemically replaces the steps an IRS Error Resolution employee would take to resolve errors, shortens the time needed to resolve taxpayer errors that could delay refunds, and reduces the risk of IRS employee error.” Through January 5, 2023, nearly 13.5 million tax returns were corrected using the automated FixERS tool.
According to the IRS, it costs $1.01 to work an individual tax return in the Error Resolution program. Using the IRS’s estimated cost of $1.01 per return, TIGTA estimates that the use of the FixERS tool resulted in a cost savings of $13.6 million for PY 2022 and $2.4 million for PY 2023.
