WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite losing tens of thousands of workers, the IRS managed to process tax refunds during the 2026 filing season better than many feared — but taxpayers who needed direct help from the agency were largely left struggling, according to a federal watchdog report.
Erin M. Collins, who heads the independent watchdog agency that oversees the IRS, put it plainly: “Taxpayers who required assistance from the IRS often struggled to get it.”
Collins had sounded the alarm earlier this year, warning that the 2026 filing season could be rough for anyone who ran into trouble with their taxes, given the large number of IRS employees who had departed since the start of the Trump administration.
The agency entered 2025 with roughly 102,000 employees on its payroll. By the time the year wrapped up, that number had dropped to around 74,000 — the result of firings and layoffs tied to the Department of Government Efficiency, led by trillionaire Elon Musk. During the previous tax season in 2025, IRS customer service workers had been barred from accepting a buyout offer until after the filing deadline. This year, many of those same workers were gone.
In a newly released mid-year report issued Wednesday, Collins said the agency’s overall performance exceeded her expectations. “The vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay,” she wrote.
The report credits technology upgrades and increased automation with helping the IRS avoid a complete breakdown during the filing season.
But when it came to answering the phone, the agency fell well short. On major account management lines, about 59% of calls were answered. For taxpayers calling compliance lines, that figure dropped to just 34%. And for those dealing with identity theft, only 19% of calls got through to a live person.
Identity theft victims are facing an especially long road, the report found. More than 500,000 people caught up in identity theft cases are waiting an average of roughly 20 months — nearly 600 days — for their cases to be resolved. The watchdog noted this is not a new problem for the agency, but one that continues to drag on without a fix.
