Janet Yellen Reports IRS Digital Document Submission Plan Ahead of Schedule

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced a new timetable for paperless taxpayer communications, allowing taxpayers to submit tax documents and other communications to the IRS digitally months earlier than planned. This move aims to speed up processing times for the system and alleviate the burden of paper documents on the IRS, which has been underfunded and overwhelmed for decades. Yellen’s speech emphasizes the positive impact of the cash infusion for the IRS included in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. Taxpayers will now have the opportunity to save time and effort by submitting their documents earlier. The IRS’s customer service improvements plan for the 2024 filing season aligns with the allocated funds for taxpayers. The initiative will enable most people to submit everything digitally, including tax returns, by 2024, reducing errors and storage costs. The processing change is expected to save the agency millions of dollars spent on storing historical documents. However, the IRS still faces challenges, as it is confronted with proposals to cut its funding. Despite these obstacles, Yellen’s announcement signals progress in modernizing taxpayer communications with the IRS.