>> cox is committed to providing eligible families access to affordable internet through the connect to compete, bridging the digital divide one active and engaged student at a time. cox, bringing us closer. >> cox supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> we take you back live to capitol hill with a house ways and means subcommittee is holding a hearing with the i.r.s. commissioner about the 2022 tax filing season. >> the gentlelady's time has expired. and the chair now recognizes mr. horsford, for five minutes. mr. horsford: thank you very much, madam speaker. and i thank you for this important timely hearing.

commissioner rettig, good to see you and all of your team members. congratulations on 50 years of service to you as well. i am going to get right into it because we have a number of priorities facing the american people and one of them is the issue of gas prices. they're simply too high and it is imperative that we identify solutions to bring them down. since president putin started his devastating war in ukraine, the price of gas has gone up 75 cents. but the price of oil is rising disproportionately compared to the cost of a barrel of oil. as gas prices soared in 2021, the largest oil and gas companies made a combined $205 billion in record profits, according to a new report by

accountable.us. exxonmobil, the largest oil and gas company in the u.s., reported over $23 billion in profits in 2020 alone, which was a 60% increase compared to 2019 profit of $14 billion. this on top of the tax cut that they got under the trump tax proposals, and three oil companies actually pay an effective federal tax rate of zero. at the same time, many of these big oil companies are not paying their fair share of taxes, as i said, and there are many not paying any at all and they're not doing anything to pass those profits onto consumers at a time when the american people need it the most. this is simply not fair and it's time that it be addressed. so mr. rettig, what steps is and can the i.r.s. take to provide relief to the american people as

it pertains to accountability for these big oil companies and the price of gas at the pumps? mr. rettig: we will do that we can for every american throughout -- that predates me that will continue for the employees at the i.r.s. we are not a brick and mortar organization. we will follow the law. i urge congress to take a hard look at the law. and in conjunction with that. i heard something recently, there was discussion about an excess profits tax and whatever. there are a lot of things the media is talking about in this space. but, no, come back to the i.r.s. has 6,500 experienced revenue agents. i only gave you one language which was the partnership tax -- mr. horsford: thank you. mr. rettig: we don't have the resources to go after the bigs or super bigs and we get outgunned routinely in that space. mr. horsford: let me reclaim my time. dealing with the earned income tax credit, the very low income

people get identified for auditing at a higher and disproportionate rate and yet we don't have the adequate staffing to go after the big companies and in this case big oil, some of whom are not paying any federal tax -- effective tax rate. and those who have record profits and are not passing those benefits to consumers. does the i.r.s. support providing an income-based tax relief to provide consumers with a monthly rebate paid for by the excess profits of big oil companies? mr. rettig: that would be a policy call for treasury. treasury handles tax policy. we follow the law. mr. hosford: i look forward to contacting treasury to follow up on that. i want solutions now. we cannot wait. my constituents are struggling to get by as it is and, yes, we have a lot of priorities, but this is one that must be addressed. mr. rettig: i'm confident the deputy secretary will meet with you. mr. hosford: i hope he will. i appreciate his leadership as

well. now, turning back to the tax filing season, as my colleagues have talked about, i have two just questions i want to get on the record. one, is there someone at i.r.s. my staff can call with respect to the delays in the direct deposit issue that we're hearing about? and how is the department dividing up its resources to address the 2020 tax return backlog while also processing the incoming 2021 claims? mr. rettig: i think your staff has my cell phone and our leg affairs folks, they can reach out directly to them. also, we have friday briefings every friday at 2:00 p.m. with ken corbin who can get the direct responses for you on that. in terms of processing, we process on a first in first out basis. we have a few million, about 2 1/2 million returns that were filed in calendar year 2020 --

paper returns in calendar year 2020 -- excuse me -- 2021 and we have about a million -- 4.2 million total paper returns in inventory to be processed. everything else is in processed has looked out and fallen out for some particular reason. but we can certainly go through it. i am confident, if i may, madam chair, if any of you are in my seat, you would have the same passion and pride that i sit here with of the effort of our folks to get this right. we are working really hard on behalf of each of you and every american. >> we appreciate that. and you can follow up in writing with all those details about how you're going to be processing these returns this year. the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes mr. hern for five minutes. mr. hern: thank you, mr. rettig, for being here today. it's great to see you again. i'd like to have some additional conversation around the ertc

issue that's going on around the country. i was in small business 35 years. certainly understand the importance of the relief that congress gave. unfortunately, much of that relief didn't get to the businesses but they have the exposure to the tax. you know, they were struggling and we've talked to accountants and companies about the issues facing the ertc issue. the main issue companies are faced with now was the amending quarterly and tax reform, form 941. companies are filing their 941 on time and amending it because the payroll companies don't have the bandwidth to get the information. they will be filing their april, 2022 returns with reduced wages. they still have not received the checks for the ertc credit. taxpayers are paying tax on income they have never received. not only are small businesses liable for the tax on reduced

wages but also reliable on the safe harbor on their estimated which is inflated due to the reduced wages. we heard shocking instances of companies having to go take out short-term loans to pay their quarterly estimates or their liability that's due until they receive their credits from the previous year from 2021. like my colleague, mrs. miller, pointed out this program was give help to small businesses. i certainly understand your passion. i can assure you the small businesses are hurting and should not be penalized for doing the right thing. i understand there are massive backlogs at the i.r.s. and there are procedures in place to address these issues. but the small businesses who kept their doors open needs certainty they will receive the credits in a timely matter and -- manner. we have reports of penalty notices going out automatically to taxpayers who filed on time but have a return stuck in the backlog. creeps like the aicpa have asked the i.r.s. to consider penalty

relief. i'll give you the remainder of the time to elaborate. are you seeing this -- specifically to erct? mr. rettig: we consider penalty relief -- i said everybody here, every time i go outside -- and i do a lot of external presentations. 36 years tax lawyer on the outside representing taxpayers with respect to the i.r.s. and various state taxing agencies. what i tell the accountants and lawyers in the world, any conversation i would have with an i.r.s. person going back to february of 2020 would start out with covid and it would be covid in the middle. our employees have gone through the same thing. our employees understand. the point on the automated notices, those were stopped. if somebody received one recently, i'd like to have that notice and find out because all automated notices stopped months ago. and so we've dressed virtually everything -- we've addressed virtually everything.

nothing is off the table to consider. we have regular meetings with people all over. i think you heard me say, i know thousands of people on the outside who fortunately, unfortunately have my non-i.r.s. personal cell phone. thank you for protecting me from myself, right? but the point being, our ear is to the ground on the frontlines in every direction. internally you heard me talk about how we're touching our people who are handling the calls and that's getting to me. externally, i -- my friends are the people you're talking about who are on the outside, whether it's small business owners, accountants, enrolled agents, people without a designation or people with a designation. so the understanding is there. the need for the priority and the understanding -- the need for the priority. i do not anticipate people ending up with a penalty when we had automated -- >> mr. rettig, if i could reclaiming my time. we have about a minute left.

just to the specifics -- there are a lot of preparers watching this video. we want to make sure they see it. i guess i am trying to put you on the spot. you have been on the side representing people. they don't want be to penalized in the liability and the estimates on money they haven't received yet. now, they understand they received the money, it's not they're asking for anything special other than not to be penaled for money they haven't received yet. mr. rettig: the people that prepare the letters know the answer you have -- you asked me. mr. hern: i have been in business 35 years. i have multiple businesses. in is a personal thing. it should be for everybody. mr. rettig: when you mentioned aicpa, that's what i'm speaking to. i am talking to the same people you're talking to. they are not my professional colleagues. these are your friends, my friends. we are all in the same thing. i.r.s. is an agency of people who understand who have gone through the same thing people on

the outside have gone through. mr. hern: you're not answering the question. just some consideration. we are at the end of the quarter now. i yield back, madam chair. ms. chu: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes mr. davis for five minutes. mr. davis: yes. thank you very much. and commissioner, let me thank you for being here and answer all of this plethora of questions that are coming. first of all, let me thank you for your letter yesterday clarifying that payments to foster youth are nontaxable.

mr. rettig: i apologize. i thought that went out to you previously. and you and i have had discussions in that space before. and the letter was to confirm those discussions. thank you. mr. davis: well, thank you very much. and i also want to thank you and your team for creating the materials to help foster and homeless youth understand the earned income tax credit provisions are relevant to them. and further, i want to thank the chicago taxpayer advocate, mr. andrew van single, an district leads for their help educating my constituents about the refundable tax credit. mr. commissioner, i know how life changing the tax year 2021 enhancements to the refundable credit will be to my constituents this year. and so for each of the

refundable credits, can your team provide myself and this committee interim reports on the number of claimants and the amount of funds for tax year 2021 for the refundable tax credits soon after the filing season closes? this information will be of great help to understand how these credits impacted families and workers. can that information be provided? mr. rettig: yes, sir. i actually have that information for you today. we don't keep the information directly, but we do, under the path act, we're required to hold those until february 15. so the information i have today is on the refundable credits that we had held as of february 15 but have since released. there's three basic categories. it's held only for economic

impact -- excuse me -- earned income tax credit. it's held only for the child tax credit. and it's held for both child tax credit and earned income tax credit. so in total, $34 billion was held through february 15 in accordance with the path act, we're not able to distribute that until after february 15. eitc only hold was $2.3 billion. actc only hold was $110 million. eitc and actc hold combined, both who claimed both credits, $26 drp 7 billion. there's $5 billion of other credits, non-eitc, non-ctc. those totals were d -- a combined $26.7 billion for the combination of eitc and the rest. we have the specifics.

i kind of rounded off. mr. davis: well, thank you very much. and, again, i just want to shout out and say thanks to the taxpayer advocate's office in chicago for all of the assistance that they have given. trying to make sure that individuals understand the earned income tax credit, that they understand the child tax credit, and understand all of those benefits which would help them spread the word. so thank you very much. and i yield back. ms. chu: the gentleman yields back. i would like to thank our witness, commissioner rettig, for joining us today. please be advised that members have two weeks to submit written questions to be answered later in writing. those questions and your answers will be made part of the formal

hearing record. with that, the subcommittee stands adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> the house is back in session at noon eastern to consider several bills. one would end forced arbitration

in employer, consumer and civil rights cases. meaning, plaintiffs would have a right to sue in court rather than being forced into arbitration. the house will take up a bill to suspend the normal trade relations with russia and belarus because of the invasion of ukraine. and the house will consider a resolution condemning the deaths of 14 people in the 1972 bloody sunday massacre in ireland. when the house is back in session, live coverage here on c-span. continues. host: we are back. after hearing from the ukrainian president yesterday in a virtual address to congress, lawmakers are debating what more should be done if anything to support ukraine. this morning we want you to tell lawmakers behind us what you think. has it been not enough, too much, or the right amount? those are your responses and tell us