May 1, 2020 As we wrap up the week, I want to thank our employees for several important achievements that we can all take pride in. This week, we began a process of starting to resume more of our operations. I want to thank those employees who voluntarily came back earlier this week to help with vital operations in more than 20 locations across the country. I know this was not an easy decision, given so many family and personal considerations, but I want to thank these employees for their inspiring decision to help out in the nation's time of need. At the same time, I want to continue to thank many others who have never stopped coming into our offices and campuses to provide mission-critical duties. They kept our operations going at a critical time. And I also want to thank the majority of our employees who never stopped working during this period. Telework is successfully being used across the agency with more than 52,000 working remotely this week at our peak - a huge percentage of our workforce. Your dedication to assisting each other and serving the people of our country at this time is inspiring. As local health advisories around the country begin to be lifted in the coming weeks and months and operations continue to increase, I want to assure you that the IRS will continue to implement, follow – and where possible exceed – specific federal and local safety guidelines and measures. I know the health concerns remain top of mind for all of us, and the coronavirus continues to hit close to home. I know many of us have lost loved ones among our family and friends. Our sympathies and prayers go out to our families and colleagues. The severity of the coronavirus and the safety of employees and taxpayers is at the top of our mind as we begin the process of resuming operations. I am confident that our swift actions to protect our workforce have helped lessen the impact of this insidious virus. Our Facilities Management personnel have been working around the clock throughout this period to have our facilities supplied, sanitized and remain in an operational status. As guidelines adjust, the reopening of our facilities will be expanded but not without a constant awareness of your personal safety. As I've often said, the success of our country depends a lot upon the achievements of IRS employees. This has never been more true as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic. Without you, we would not be able to provide Americans, including the most vulnerable, with the services they need, especially now. As we gradually phase in the reopening of our buildings as circumstances permit, we will initially focus on matters of the most significance. This includes lessening burdens and backlogs while also enhancing taxpayer services and certain enforcement activities. It's essential that the IRS begin to resume a number of key responsibilities, including opening mail that has been held for a number of weeks, processing paper correspondence and paper tax returns that may offer refunds to taxpayers, working on returns with refundable credits critical to the personal financial support of many people in underserved communities, answering important questions on our toll-free lines and certain lien/levy release functions. Our compliance operations – both Criminal Investigation and civil side -- have continued working important issues during this period as well. Our work on Economic Impact Payments continues to help people across the nation. We have executed an extraordinary task by delivering 130 million Economic Impact Payments, totaling more than $200 billion, to Americans in less than 30 days. For comparison, that's quickly closing in on $248 billion in total tax refunds we've delivered for this filing season. Put another way, IRS employees have delivered nearly half a trillion dollars to taxpayers since January. Helping us deliver the Economic Impact Payments quickly are two new tools we've released in recent weeks. The Non-Filer tool on IRS.gov allows people who normally don't have a filing obligation to enter basic information so that they receive their payment more quickly. And the new Get My Payment tool on IRS.gov allows many taxpayers to enter their banking information and check the status of their payment. More than 130 million people have successfully checked the status of their payment. And 11 million people have successfully provided their banking information in the past two weeks, meaning they will get their payments much more quickly. To all of you, I want you to know we will not forget that you stepped up at one of the most important times in the history of our agency and of our country. On behalf of the entire IRS leadership team, I thank you -- and your families – for everything you've done and continue to do to support our vital functions. You are making a difference on behalf of many others. Thank you! –Chuck
