(1) The Internal Revenue Service is facing un-
precedented challenges following the outbreak of the 
COVID–19 and the Federal response which included 
significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code. 
(2) Since that time, the Internal Revenue Serv-
ice has been under tremendous strain with rapidly 
growing workloads and significant staffing chal-
lenges. 
(3) At the beginning of the 2021 tax season, 
the Internal Revenue Service still had approximately 
11.7 million backlogged returns from tax year 2020, 
and it took the IRS until June of 2021 to get 
through its 2019 backlog. 
(4) As of December 2021, the Internal Revenue 
Service still had a backlog of approximately 6 million 
unprocessed individual tax returns. 
(5) Processing delays at the Internal Revenue 
Service have a disproportionately negative impact on 
low-income Americans. 
(6) In fiscal year 2021, the Internal Revenue 
Service received approximately 282 million phone 
calls, of which only 11 percent or about 32 million 
were actually answered by customer service rep-
resentatives. 
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(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the American people deserve an Internal Rev-
enue Service that is responsive, efficient, and precise in 
its actions, and the Internal Revenue Service must develop 
a corrective action plan to address key deficiencies. 
SEC. 3. CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN REQUIRED TO ADDRESS 
KEY DEFICIENCIES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall develop a written corrective active plan to 
achieve average return of tax processing times that do not 
exceed the average of such processing times for returns 
of tax relating to the 5-year period ending on December 
31, 2019. Such corrective active plan shall include the fol-
lowing: 
(1) Quarterly goals and benchmarks to achieve 
such processing times not later than the beginning 
of the processing period for returns of tax relating 
to taxable years ending on or after December 31, 
2023. 
(2) A list of technological upgrades that would 
improve processing times of returns of tax. 
(3) A list of human resource policy changes 
that would improve processing of returns of tax, in-
cluding— 
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(A) a list of ways to increase productivity 
of staff working remotely as the result of 
COVID–19, and 
(B) a strategy to improve recruitment and 
retention. 
(4) An estimate of the cost of maintaining and 
operating existing taxpayer information processing 
technology. 
(5) An estimate of the total annual cost of pro-
tecting the computer systems of the Internal Rev-
enue Service from cyber intrusion. 
(6) An analysis on how much the Internal Rev-
enue Service has paid in interest to taxpayers as a 
result of backlogs in processing returns of tax that 
were submitted after March 13, 2020. 
(7) A plan to address backlogs in the Error 
Resolution System to reduce the need for manual 
processing, including— 
(A) rapid identification of math errors and 
immediate notification to the taxpayer, 
(B) improvements to processing times for 
taxpayer correspondence, and 
(C) an analysis of options to improve tax-
payer correspondence to include expanding tax-
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payer awareness and use of online accounts to 
send and receive secure correspondence. 
(8) An analysis of new Customer Relationship 
Management software options to improve taxpayer 
inquiry tracking. 
(9) An analysis of options to improve taxpayer 
access to in-person meetings with the Taxpayer Ad-
vocate Service and the Internal Revenue Service, 
particularly in areas with significant backlogs of re-
quests for such meetings. 
(10) A strategy to prevent inaccurate cor-
respondence to taxpayers and tax practitioners. 
(b) PUBLICATION AND SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.— 
The Secretary of the Treasury shall publish the corrective 
active plan required under subsection (a) on the website 
of the Internal Revenue Service and shall submit such cor-
rective active plan to the Committees on Ways and Means, 
Appropriations, and Oversight and Reform of the House 
of Representatives and to the Committees on Finance and 
Appropriations of the Senate. 
SEC. 4. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE MODERNIZATION OF 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall im-
prove communication with the public by— 
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(1) expanding the capacity of the practitioner 
priority service to respond to certified public ac-
countants acting on behalf of a client, 
(2) establishing a chat function on the website 
of the Internal Revenue Service on which a taxpayer 
can get a quick answer to a basic question that does 
not require the exchange of personally identifiable 
information, and 
(3) establishing an online scheduling tool to 
allow taxpayers to schedule virtual meetings, phone 
calls, and in-person meetings. 
Æ 
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