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Today — February 21, 2022 — is Presidents Day. But if you’re wanting to know if you can contact the IRS today or if you’ll get a deposit on your tax refund, the answer is that you’ll need to wait. Presidents Day is a federal holiday, which means the IRS is closed today.
IRS Offices Are Closed on Presidents Day 2022
Tax filing season just started on January 24, 2022, KRDO reported. So it hasn’t even been that long since the IRS began accepting and processing 2021 tax returns, and they’re already going on a holiday. But this is normal. The IRS typically starts tax season shortly before the Presidents Day holiday.
According to OPM.gov, Presidents Day (aka Washington’s Birthday) is one of the observed federal holidays when most federal employees don’t work.
OPM noted, “Federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) establishes the public holidays listed in these pages for Federal employees. Please note that most Federal employees work on a Monday through Friday schedule. For these employees, when a holiday falls on a nonworkday — Saturday or Sunday — the holiday usually is observed on Monday (if the holiday falls on Sunday) or Friday (if the holiday falls on Saturday).”
Washington’s Birthday is the third observed holiday of 2022, preceded by New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Federal offices are also closed on Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
OPM also noted: “This holiday is designated as ‘Washington’s Birthday’ in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law.”
Local Taxpayer Assistance Offices Are Closed
My refund was scheduled for today but the irs doesnt work on presidents day
Local Taxpayer Assistance Centers are also closed on federal holidays, including Presidents Day, the IRS website noted. Of course, private businesses in your region that offer taxpayer assistance might be open. This closure only applies to federal centers.
On February 12, more than a week before Presidents Day, the IRS opened TACs across the country, even though they’re normally closed on Saturdays, the IRS shared. Additional Saturdays when they will be open include March 12, April 9, and May 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Two years ago, the IRS noted that people with questions might want to avoid the rush that happens during the two weeks after the Presidents Day holiday by using the IRS’ online tools rather than trying to call. You can track refunds on IRS.gov or use the Where’s My Refund tool to track refunds. You can also find answers to many questions on IRS.gov and utilize digital payment options.
The IRS has been experiencing an extensive backlog of unprocessed tax returns from last year, Accounting Today reported.
In light of this, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told members of Congress in early February: “The combination of the pandemic, new tax laws and numerous other factors led to an unprecedented amount of unprocessed tax returns and correspondence remaining in the IRS inventory during 2021. The IRS pursued significant actions during the 2021 filing season to address the return and correspondence inventory. But, because the IRS lacked the resources it needed to reduce inventory to a healthy level, we are entering the filing season with a significant inventory of unprocessed returns and correspondence.”
Because of the backlog, the IRS announced on February 10 that it was suspending automatic collection notice mailings, NJ.com reported. The backlog includes six million unprocessed individual tax returns and 2.3 million amended tax returns, along with two million quarterly returns.