The I.R.S. plans to hire 10,000 workers to clear a tax return backlog.

The Inside Income Service stated on Thursday that it deliberate a hiring spree this tax season because it tries to clear a backlog of greater than 20 million unprocessed tax returns from earlier years.

The company stated it meant to rent 10,000 new staff within the subsequent yr and hoped to convey on about half of these employees within the subsequent few months. The I.R.S. described the blueprint as an “all arms on deck” method to emerge from longstanding staffing shortages that have been compounded by the pandemic.

“To make sure stock is again to a wholesome degree for subsequent submitting season, we’re leaving no stone unturned — taking an all-hands-on-deck method to make sure as many staff as doable are dedicating time to return processing,” Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, stated in an announcement.

This tax season has been probably the most difficult within the historical past of the I.R.S., present and former staff say. Longstanding finances cuts and employees shortages collided with the pandemic, because the company turned the principle distributor of stimulus aid, together with direct checks and tax credit.

The I.R.S. has suffered from tight budgets for many years, as Republicans sought to starve the company. It acquired greater than $1 billion in further funding via the American Rescue Plan final yr, although, to enhance taxpayer providers. A 2022 Home spending invoice that handed this week would give $12.6 billion to the I.R.S., the most important annual finances enhance since 2001.

The hiring objectives won’t essentially be simple to perform, because the nation has been experiencing a labor scarcity and lots of the I.R.S. jobs pay $15 an hour, making them much less aggressive than many non-public sector jobs.

The I.R.S. expects to carry job festivals in Kansas Metropolis, Mo.; Austin, Texas; and Ogden, Utah, to beef up its processing facilities in these cities. It’s also shifting 700 staff to these places to create “surge groups” to course of backlogged returns.

Officers from the Treasury Division, which oversees the I.R.S., stated on Thursday that the purpose was to have the stock of previous tax returns cleared by subsequent yr’s tax season. There aren’t any plans, they stated, to delay Tax Day this yr past April 18.