WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTWO/WAWV)— U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth led Illinois’ congressional Democrats in demanding answers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on why residents were receiving erroneous letters about late tax payments.
These letters being sent out to residents by the Internal Revenue Service are claiming that people have yet to pay their taxes even after filing and paying them on time. Reports earlier this month were coming in stating that residents of Illinois were being billed again for their taxes, this time with late fees. According to the news release, many of these individuals reached out to the IRS with no answers or response from the agency.
Lawmakers have written to IRS Commissioner William Long to try and find out how many residents had been affected and how IRS staffing cuts have impacted the agency’s abilities.
“Over the last few weeks, we have heard from a number of Illinoisans that they are receiving late notices from your agency, despite previous confirmations of submission and payment,” the lawmakers wrote. “To make matters worse, the late notices also include penalties and fines, which further heightens the urgency for taxpayers to resolve the issue. Not only is it unacceptable that the IRS has failed to process tax payments in a timely manner—the failure to prevent erroneous late notices from being sent is incredibly damaging to taxpayers’ trust in the IRS.”
Due to DOGE cuts to the service, the IRS has fired more than 7,000 probationary employees and over 20,000 through multiple deferred resignation programs.
Lawmakers are requesting the following information from the IRS:
- How many Illinois taxpayers received a notice of late payment? How many in the country?
- Of those taxpayers, how many has the IRS determined received those notices in error?
- How is the IRS communicating to the taxpayers who received a notice in error?
- How is the IRS communicating to the taxpayers who received a proper notice of late payment, but is not aware that they committed an error?
- Will the IRS be waiving any fines, fees or interest as a result of the agency’s confusion?
- How many IRS employees were processing Illinois tax payments during the previous two years’ tax seasons? How many IRS employees are processing Illinois tax payments during the current tax season?
- Have all IRS employees who accepted the deferred resignation offer now left the agency? Has this contributed in any way to the delayed processing of tax payments?
- Can you confirm that of the 8,500 IT employees that the IRS had at the start of the 2025 fiscal year, more than 2,000 IT employees have separated from the IRS?
- What is the IRS’ plan to ensure that these mistakes do not happen in the future?
A full version of the letter sent can be found at this link.
