Tax Season Nightmare: The IRS is incredibly understaffed from Doge. “I don’t have time to see a specific case.”
Taxpayers calling the IRS to help process this filing season may find it more difficult than usual to call someone, experts expect to get worse next year with staffing cuts that could significantly cut their workforce.
This year, data on processing times for tax returns shows the numbers and mostly numbers from last year. IRS employees involved in2025 Tax SeasonThousands of probation workers were fired earlier this year, although they were not permitted to accept the offer of acquisition from the Trump administration until after taxpayers filed it on April 15th.
Tax compliance legal experts say the longer wait times will increase as more acquisitions and layoffs become effective.
Eric Santos, executive director of Georgia Tax Clinic, says he offers free tax law services to low-income taxpayers, with IRS phone lines significantly longer than usual, and IRS staff are overwhelmed by the increased workload.
IRS staff say “basically, they don’t have time to see a particular case,” Santos said. “Work is spreading to fewer and fewer people.”
The reduction in workers, which could be nearly half of the overall IRS workforce, isThe Trump Administration’s effortsReduce the size ofFederal WorkforceThrough a billionaireElon MuskThe government’s efficiency department has shut down agencies, fired almost all probation employees who have not yet acquired civil service protection, and offers acquisitions to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program.”
Earlier this month, the IRS began laying it offIt may be cut offUp to 20,000 staff – up to 25% of total workforce. Approximately 7,000 probation IRS workers fired since February were recently ordered to be resurrected by a federal judge, but it is unclear whether those workers have been called back to work.
Comparing figures for the first week of April 2024 and 2025, 101.4 million returns have been processed this year, compared to last year’s 101.8 million tax returns. Compared to 66.7 million people in 2024, 67.7 million people have been issued this year.
However, Santos and others are worried that the 2026 filing season could be adversely affected by the loss of thousands of additional tax collectors expected to leave their agents through planned layoffs and buyouts.
“I don’t know how they’ll catch up with tax filing season next year,” Santos said. “I think it’s a fair question to ask now.”
A Treasury spokesman who was not allowed to speak publicly on terms of anonymity and spoke to The Associated Press in a statement said in a statement that IRS staffing cuts are part of the other improvements agents are taking to make them more efficient and improve their services.
Sakinatilman, director of the District of Columbia Tax Clinic, has seen that refunds for this year are not delayed, but reaching the IRS over the phone is delayed.
She worries that phone delays can hurt clients through collections they are trying to solve their debts.
“What happens when a client tries to comply?” she asked. “Or who can be willing to pay but can’t take someone over the phone?
Former IRS commissioner John Koskinen told the Associated Press that even in a normal year, the IRS’ responsiveness will be slower as the tax season progresses.
“If next year they cut 10,000 or 20,000 employees, they’re back on the phone to very bad taxpayer services,” he said. “And the taxpayer’s priority lines become a contradiction.”
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com