The IRS faces backlogs from last year as a new tax filing season begins
Patrick Sison / AP This year's tax filing season will begin on Monday. Most people have until April 18 this year to submit their returns. This Monday marks the beginning of tax filing season, when the IRS will begin accepting 2021 income tax returns from individuals and businesses. Most people have until April 18 to submit them this year. As it starts to accept this year's returns, the IRS is still working through millions filed last year. And that's just one of its problems. "The service is in the roughest shape it's been in in 50 years," says Mark Everson, who served as IRS commissioner in the George W. Bush administration. He says the agency is understaffed, has more work than it can handle and is underfunded. The result, he says, is the IRS has "huge backlogs right now that are unprocessed returns from prior years, refund requests, a lot of correspondence that hasn't even been opened and ... it's very tough to get through on the phone. So...