WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday said it would complete processing this week all the original, error-free 2021 individual tax returns filed, clearing a backlog of 8 million returns, but the agency still face major challenges.

The IRS has already processed more than 143 million returns received in 2022, providing over $298 billion in refunds to taxpayers, but still has millions of paper returns to process because it started the year with a significant backlog.

The agency said it has hired 1,500 new employees, and was also hiring thousands of contractors to support its work.