IRS Budget Cuts And Refund Delays Are No Jokes, Folks


No, it’s not a hoax. The IRS did just receive another budget cut, and which Commissioner John Koskinen said will result in fewer staff at fewer hours during the tax filing season. As a result, Koskinen said, tax refunds will take longer to process. And no matter what comment to the contrary on Liberal America’s Facebook page, this story’s legit.

A recent article on this situation is receiving negative comments on Liberal America’s Facebook page, and from readers who swear the information is false. These commenters cite reports from Forbes and Snopes.com, which label news about tax refund delays to be a hoax.

(Image from Liberal America's Facebook page)
(Image from Liberal America’s Facebook page)

However, those cited reports are from Oct. 2014, and refer to a satirical piece in National Report?from Sept. 2014. In that fictional article, National Report claimed that no federal tax refunds would be available until Oct. 2015.

(Image from National Report)
(Image from National Report)

However ? get ready for it ? Liberal America’s recent article on the subject (?Tax Refunds Will Be Delayed In 2015, Thanks To Republican Budget Cuts?) is absolutely, 100-percent, without-doubt true. We even cited two major media about this very new news that first came out in mid-December.

Our article cites an IRS press conference, not a satirical ?news? site. And that press conference was in Dec. 2014, not the September date of the satire, nor the October criticism of that satire by other media. That same other media also reported news about the factual IRS budget cuts, too ? even in an article by the same featured columnist.

Forbes? tax news contributor Kelly Phillips Erb, who criticized the National Journal’s spoof in an October column, later wrote about the actual cuts to IRS funding in a Jan. 4 article. (In fact, she ranked it third of 10 in a ?Top Tax Stories of 2014? post.) Erb wrote:

(Image from Forbes.com)
(Image from Forbes.com)

And just for the record, folks? Erb’s column that mentions the validity of this IRS dilemma was published on Jan. 4 ? two weeks after Liberal America wrote about it on Dec. 20. (How’s that? We scooped the tax columnist of a financial news journal on a subject about taxes!)


And to quote our original article:

“On Dec. 18, the?IRS announced?that 2015 tax refunds will take longer to process ? and directly because of those cuts that Republicans demanded. The $346 million reduction to its budget will result in fewer IRS employees, IRS Commission John Koskinen said at Thursday’s press conference. Because no overtime for current staff can be authorized, either, he pointed out, processing the average 140 million tax filings?will take much longer.”

Keep the faith, people. Liberal America’s legit.


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I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.