IRS slows down tax return processing to address fraud

The Internal Revenue Process took three times as long to review and process tax returns in fiscal 2015, but a fraud prevention company says the slowdown is geared toward security.

In fiscal 2015, the average tax return took the IRS 21 days to process, compared to only 7 days in previous filing years. But iovation, a fraud-and-abuse company whose clients work with the IRS during tax season, said in a study launched Wednesday that new fraud prevention efforts at the IRS account for the longer processing windows.

“In this case, it’s extending the review time and doing verification and validations of the personal information, verifying the identity of the individual and ensuring that it’s a valid return. So from a federal government perspective, this is a good thing because it will decrease their fraud rates. It won’t eliminate them, but certainly they’re going to be experiencing less fraud,” Scott Olson, iovation’s vice president of product, said in an interview with Federal News Radio.

While iovation commended the IRS for its slow-and-steady approach, Olson said budget and workforce cuts have also led to slower response rates.

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