{"id":382,"date":"2026-06-29T23:13:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=382"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:13:51","slug":"despite-taxing-year-irs-watchdog-reports-mostly-smooth-filing-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=382","title":{"rendered":"Despite taxing year, IRS watchdog reports mostly smooth filing season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Despite having to make more than 100 changes to the tax code as a result of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, employing about a quarter fewer employees and experiencing leadership turnover, an independent IRS watchdog reported that the tax agency conducted a largely successful filing season in 2026. But the Taxpayer Advocate Service also warned that staff cuts made it harder for taxpayers who needed assistance to receive it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the end, the IRS performed better than expected in most respects. The vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay,\u201d National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in a Wednesday report to Congress. \u201cIRS leadership and its workforce deserve substantial credit for that accomplishment, particularly given the extraordinary operational pressures they overcame.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

TAS reported that the IRS processed almost 99% of individual tax returns by the end of filing season. The office attributed this to stable leadership in the division responsible for tax filing as well as a \u201csignificant majority\u201d of returns being automatedly processed through electronic submission and direct deposit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the watchdog criticized phone wait lines, the level of provided in-person assistance and the filing experience for many taxpayers who rely on paper checks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith fewer employees and even fewer experienced employees, personal service was harder to come by,\u201d Collins wrote. \u201cThat translated to longer waits for assistance, fewer experienced employees available to work on complex account issues, delayed responses to correspondence and, as a result, longer case resolution times.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In total, IRS answered 21% of calls in 2026 with an average wait time of 14 minutes compared with 25% the prior year when taxpayers waited an average of eight minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TAS noted this was somewhat by design, as the IRS prioritized assigning employees to work on responding to paper correspondence instead of answering phones because staffers often end up not performing work while waiting for a taxpayer to call.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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But the watchdog flagged that the phone line for taxpayers when they are unable to pay their liability, for example, only answered 31% of the time and after an average wait of 45 minutes. Likewise, the line taxpayers need to call to prove their identities when their returns are suspected of identity theft had an answer rate of 19% with a 20-minute average wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TAS also reported that the number of fully staffed Taxpayer Assistance Centers decreased to 42 from 102 in 2025 and that the Trump administration\u2019s pivot away from paper checks contributed to delays of six weeks or more for taxpayers who requested non-electronic refunds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA modernized IRS can and should improve efficiency and service, but transformation should not come at the expense of accessibility, fairness or human assistance,\u201d Collins wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The National Treasury Employees Union said the TAS report shows the IRS workforce deserves praise for managing \u201cto do more with less\u201d but also bemoaned the reduced service availability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo taxpayer should be left out in the cold for needing help paying their fair share,\u201d said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a statement. \u201cA smaller, less effective IRS undercuts the whole tax system and deprives our government of much-needed revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Taxpayer Advocate Service did, however, find that staff cuts made it more difficult for taxpayers who needed assistance to access it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oversight"],"yoast_head":"\nDespite taxing year, IRS watchdog reports mostly smooth filing season - Market Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=382\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Despite taxing year, IRS watchdog reports mostly smooth filing season - 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