President Trump’s Return to In-Person Work executive order can help resolve thousands of taxpayer identity theft cases
It now takes the IRS an average of 676 days to resolve identity theft cases, an incident where criminals file a tax return using somebody else’s information.
This is five times longer than the 129 days it took in 2020.
What happened? The IRS massively expanded its “work from home” employee privileges.
In March of 2020 the IRS closed many of its office doors for the COVID-19 pandemic, and during this time the amount of IRS employees working from home increased by about 13,000 workers.
This number did not stop climbing following the pandemic. Biden-appointed IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel remarked during a House Ways and Means committee hearing that 50% of employees were working remotely. This was in response to questioning from Rep. Ron Estes (R- Kan.).
Estes asked: “So how can somebody in a remote location be handling these tax returns? That just seems to me that it’s not doing the job that needs to be done to help service American constituents.”
This lack of service is evident in the IRS’s glacial pace in resolving Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) cases. Since office doors closed in 2020 these cases took over five times the amount of days to resolve, from 129 days in the fiscal year 2020 to 676 days in 2024 – nearly two years of waiting.
As noted in the official 2024 National Taxpayer Advocate Annual Report to Congress:
“For cases closed by the IRS’s Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) unit in Fiscal Year 2024, the average time it took the IRS to resolve identity theft cases and issue refunds to the affected victims was almost two years. These delays impacted nearly half a million taxpayers and were even worse than the delays seen in FY 2023, when cases took almost 19 months to resolve.“
Additionally, National Taxpayer Advocate, Erin Collins, calls these delays “unconscionable” and one of the top two problems the IRS is currently facing.
Not only does it take IRS employees within the IDTVA branch several years to train for identity theft cases, but the full training for these cases does not commence until an employee’s third year.
American families and taxpayers are patiently waiting at the door for their much anticipated and needed tax returns. As their livelihood is turned around from these fraudulent acts, the IRS continues to trail behind on getting them the services they need.
Once locked out of their IRS accounts due to identity theft, victims are unable to take action and often face dire consequences. From destroyed credit histories and lost bank accounts, to even false arrests. Small businesses suffer too as the threat of business identity theft grows, facing financial loss and lawsuits as tax compliance becomes increasingly difficult.
As federal employees remain home, taxpayer casework suffers.
Even Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed frustration — while testifying to congress — that the IRS could not meet its in-person work thresholds.
