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Law360 (May 31, 2020, 8:34 PM EDT) -- Thousands of IRS workers returning to work Monday in Kentucky, Texas and Utah will face nearly 5 million unopened tax returns as of mid-May, according to a report compiled from IRS data by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The agency already has been processing some 4.4 million individual tax returns and 1.4 million business returns as of May 16, according to the report, which the panel shared with Law360. In addition to the unopened tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service has approximately 5 million unopened mail items including payments, payment vouchers, general correspondence and information returns.
To protect employees' health and safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency will enforce social distancing and obtain nearly 1.8 million disposable masks and 188,000 reusable masks, the May 27 report said.
"The focus of employees reporting to the four submission processing centers is on opening mail and depositing checks, as well as income verification requests," the report said.
IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig had previously announced the agency planned to order 11,000 employees in Kentucky, Texas and Utah who can't telework to return to worksites starting June 1.
IRS employees returning to work will join other agency workers who already returned on a voluntary basis. Earlier in May, Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said his organization supported an IRS call for additional employees to volunteer to return, but said they needed to feel safe doing so, particularly after a Kansas City, Missouri, worker contracted COVID-19.
Rettig previously said the agency will continue asking employees whose work isn't portable to return to their posts. The IRS is aware of growing taxpayer needs and an expanding backlog of work at its office and campus locations, he said.
As of May 9, the agency had approximately 24,000 employees on so-called weather and safety leave, 47,000 employees who were teleworking and 2,000 employees working on-site for at least 30 hours per week, according to the report.
--Additional reporting by David van den Berg. Editing by Tim Ruel.
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