Internal Revenue Service

The understaffed and overworked Internal Revenue Service is bracing for difficulties. COVID-19 relief, child tax credits and a backlog of 2020 returns will only complicate matters.

The provision is part of an order Biden signed to make the government more consumer friendly. It also makes it simpler for disaster survivors to apply for help. The order covers 17 federal agencies.

After accidentally sending stimulus checks to ineligible foreign citizens living overseas, the Internal Revenue Service is now asking some banks to help recover money, creating a legal mess.

For many families, 2020 ended up being a year with fewer child-care expenses. Now parents with unspent funds in their dependent-care flexible spending accounts are trying to figure out what to do.

The new guidance amounts to a midyear open-enrollment period and applies to firms that buy health insurance to cover their workers as well as to those that self-insure — paying claims on their own.

President Trump has refused to release his tax returns. Many Democrats are using that against him, as they reveal their own personal wealth and financial interests.

Tax refunds so far have been smaller than last year's. Some taxpayers kept a bigger share of their income, but for others it reflects an overhaul that rewarded high earners the most.

Tax season is more stressful this year for filers and IRS workers alike, because of tax law changes and the partial government shutdown that has left the agency with roughly half its normal staff.

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Jaime, a tax examiner with the Internal Revenue Service, about the toll the government shutdown is taking on her mental health.

The union for the IRS workers criticized the Trump administration for forcing them to work "in exchange only for an IOU." Employees have been promised back pay when funding is approved.

The tax collecting agency is one of those affected by the partial government shutdown, but the White House says it will issue refunds, reversing previous government policy.

The Government Accountability Office says 3 million more Americans are likely to have experienced underwithholding from their paychecks in 2018 as a direct result of the new tax law.