Taxpayers, in fact, “will at all times have the selection to submit paperwork by paper,” Yellen mentioned.
By the 2025 submitting season, the IRS “is committing to digitally course of 100% of tax and knowledge returns which can be submitted by paper — in addition to half of all paper correspondence, non-tax kinds, and see responses,” Yellen continued, in addition to “digitalize historic paperwork which can be at the moment in storage on the IRS.”
The company, based on Yellen, “receives about 200 million paper paperwork a yr — a lot of which nonetheless endure guide processing. It additionally has a long time of historic paperwork that collectively price round $40 million a yr to retailer.”
The paperless processing initiative will even unlock “different customer support enhancements,” Yellen said, permitting “taxpayers to see their paperwork, securely entry their information, and save money and time.”
Different elements of the IRS will be capable of “depend on these digital copies to offer sooner refunds, cut back errors in tax processing, and ship a extra seamless and responsive customer support expertise. And way more,” Yellen continued. She urged Congress to offer secure and enough annual appropriations for the IRS with a purpose to maintain and construct on this progress.
By the 2024 tax submitting season, the IRS mentioned taxpayers will be capable of:
- Digitally submit all correspondence, non-tax kinds, and responses to notices. Consequently, the IRS estimates “greater than 94% of particular person taxpayers will not ever have to ship mail to the IRS.”
- Use non-tax kinds to request or submit info on a variety of subjects, together with identification theft and proof that they’re eligible for key credit and deductions to assist low-income households. This may permit “as much as 125 million paper paperwork to be submitted digitally per yr.”
- E-File 20 further tax kinds, which can allow as much as 4 million further tax paperwork to be filed digitally yearly.
- Entry a minimum of 20 of essentially the most used non-tax kinds in digital, cell pleasant codecs that make them simple for taxpayers to finish and submit.
By the 2025 tax submitting season, the IRS said, it is going to:
- Make accessible an extra 150 of essentially the most used non-tax kinds in digital, mobile-friendly codecs. An estimated 15% of People rely solely on cellphones for his or her web entry.
- Digitally course of all paper-filed tax and knowledge returns. This may allow as much as 76 million paper paperwork to be processed digitally yearly, enhancing service, chopping processing instances in half, and expediting taxpayer refunds by a number of weeks.
- Course of digitally half of paper-submitted correspondence, non-tax kinds, and see responses. This may permit as much as 60 million paper paperwork to be processed digitally yearly. All paper paperwork — correspondence, non-tax kinds, and see responses — shall be processed digitally by the 2026 submitting season.
- Digitize as much as 1 billion historic paperwork, giving taxpayers entry to their information, and finally saving the IRS about $40 million in annual storage prices.
