IRS officially announces paperless tax processing by 2025

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg

The IRS plans to achieve completely paperless capabilities by the 2025 filing season, and are hoping to allow taxpayers to digitally submit all agency correspondence by 2024. This initiative follows the Inflation Reduction Act, in which the IRS is transforming into a digital-first agency. Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary, remarks, “This ‘Paperless Processing’…will enable taxpayers to see their documents, securely access their data, and save time and money. And it will allow other parts of the IRS to rely on these digital copies to provide faster refunds, reduce errors in tax processing, and deliver a more seamless and responsive customer service experience.” In addition, the agency is also going to digitize the roughly one billion historical documents in its catalog, which will save an estimated $40 million per year to store.

This paperless action is voluntary however, taxpayers will still be able to submit paper returns and correspondence to the IRS. By 2025, the paper documents submitted will be digitized upon arrival. If you would like to read more in-depth, click here for CPA Practice Advisor’s article on paperless filing.