This 24 March, 2006 photo shows US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax ... more >Already, the Internal Revenue Service has fallen behind its normal pace of issuing tax refunds — by tens of billions of dollars.
By this time last year, the IRS had issued $26.9 billion in refunds, according to statistics cited in a report in The Chicago Tribune. In comparison, the IRS this year — through Feb. 3 — has only issued $4.3 billion refunds, according to the report.
That’s a $22.6 billion difference.
The IRS blames the fiscal cliff and the ensuing uncertainties over tax policy. And interestingly, last year – when the pace of IRS refunds was slow-going, too – the agency blamed security issues, according to The Chicago Tribune. In 2005, the IRS had already refunded between $30 billion and $40 billion by this point, the report said.
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Cheryl Chumley is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She’s also a 2008-2009 Robert Novak journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation. She can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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