The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it is suspending more than a dozen automated letters it sends out to taxpayers, including collection notices, balance due notices and unfiled tax return notices, after coming under pressure from lawmakers and tax professionals to first catch up on its backlog of unprocessed returns.

The IRS reversed course Monday on earlier plans to require taxpayers to authenticate their identities with a nongovernmental facial-recognition service to use certain online services.

In a news release, the IRS announced it will "transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts." The authentication method is already in use for some interactions and optionally for taxpayers creating or using online accounts and other services. In November, the IRS announced that a new account and sign-in process would be mandatory starting sometime in summer 2022.

The Internal Revenue Service is temporarily re-assigning 1,200 employees to the frontlines of a challenging 2022 tax season to deal with a daunting backlog of last year’s paper returns and mail from taxpayers.

The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers to protect their personal and financial information throughout the year and watch out for IRS impersonation scams, along with other schemes, that try to trick people out of their hard-earned money.

With the new tax season starting this week, the IRS reminds taxpayers to be aware that criminals continue to make aggressive calls posing as IRS agents in hopes of stealing taxpayer money or personal information.

Here are some telltale signs of a tax scam along with actions taxpayers can take if they receive a scam call.

The IRS is sending letters to millions of parents who received advanced Child Tax Credit payments last year. But Monday, they warned some letters may include incorrect information.

The Treasury Department and the White House relaunched a revamped version of the ChildTaxCredit.gov site Monday to coincide with the start of tax season, adding new features to help with filing taxes and accessing the full amount of unpaid credits.

The Internal Revenue Service will require taxpayers to take selfies and verify their identities through ID.me to access online accounts starting this summer.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins told lawmakers last Wednesday that 2021 was "the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced" and that she was "deeply concerned" about the upcoming filing season.

In her annual report to Congress, Collins said 2021 "provided no shortage of taxpayer problems," and more await the 2022 filing season.