The IRS is reversing plans to close its Austin processing center, according to a Feb. 17 press release from U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

The planned 2024 closure was intended to help consolidate paper tax return processing. Due to a large amount of outstanding paper returns and IRS hiring shortages during the past two tax seasons, Doggett and other lawmakers argued the decision to close the Austin Tax Processing Center was not in the interest of taxpayers or IRS employees.

In addition to incoming tax returns from the 2021 season, the IRS has a backlog from 2020 of 10 million tax returns that were not processed due to errors, 6.7 million unprocessed individual returns and 2.9 million unprocessed 1040-X forms, according to a press release from Doggett's office.

The Austin center, located at 3651 S. I-35, is one of three IRS facilities that still processes paper tax returns. Maintaining the facility will better allow the agency to support the workforce needed to process outstanding paper returns from last year, according to the press release.