- IRS staffing shortages are slowing refunds as the agency heads toward the April 15 deadline.
- TIGTA said the IRS workforce fell by about 19,000 employees since 2021, worsening processing delays.
- Only 50 of 2,200 authorized hires were onboarded, leaving new workers unable to train before April 15 deadline.
(UNITED STATES) — The Internal Revenue Service is facing tax refund delays in the 2026 filing season as staffing shortages slow return processing, strain phone service and add to a growing backlog ahead of the April 15 deadline.
A January 2026 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration review found the agency’s workforce had fallen by approximately 19,000 employees, or about 19% from 2021 levels. Key divisions that handle return processing and taxpayer support, including submission processing and accounts management, lost 8,300 workers, or 17% of staff.
The shortfall has reached several parts of the filing system at once. Hiring has lagged, service targets have been lowered and unprocessed work has climbed, leaving many taxpayers waiting longer for refunds and answers during one of the busiest periods of the year.
The January 2026 TIGTA report tied the pressure on the filing season to staffing losses across the agency. At the same time, new tax law changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, have added complexity to returns, increasing errors and the number of filings that require manual review.
That combination has made conditions harder for taxpayers who do not file electronically or whose returns are flagged for extra checks. Paper filers face the heaviest burden because their returns require more manual handling, while amended returns can also move more slowly during the peak season.
IRS staffing shortages have also limited the agency’s ability to bring in replacements quickly. The IRS authorized 2,200 new hires for processing original and amended returns, but only 50, or 2%, were onboarded by late December 2025.
Training takes 60-80 days. That means most new hires will not be ready before the April 15 deadline, when the annual filing surge reaches its peak.
Customer service has also taken a hit. The IRS lowered its phone service goal to 70% from 85% last season, reflecting the pressure on call centers and taxpayer support operations.
Accounts management, which handles a broad range of taxpayer contacts and return-related issues, hired only 66% of the seasonal staff it needed. Training for those workers was modified because of time constraints, adding another layer of strain to a service system already operating with fewer people.
Backlogs have climbed sharply. Unprocessed items reached 2 million, up 33% from last year and double the level seen in 2019.
A 43-day government shutdown in fall 2025 made the situation worse by halting hiring and work on backlogged items. That disruption carried into the current filing season, when the agency was already trying to manage reduced staffing and more complicated returns.
TIGTA warned that the shortages and related disruptions “may affect the IRS’s ability to timely process tax returns. resulting in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds.” The warning points to the central risk for households that rely on refunds to cover bills, savings or debt payments each spring.
The agency has responded by shifting workers from other offices into tax-season duties. Starting in late February 2026, the IRS began pulling 500 employees from human resources, information technology and other divisions for temporary details lasting 120-180 days.
Some of those reassigned workers have limited tax experience. Alex Kweskin, IRS chief human capital officer, said at a February town hall that extensions of those assignments were possible, a sign that the agency may need support from outside its traditional tax-processing staff beyond the initial deployment.
The reassignments show how far the IRS has gone to cover gaps in return season operations. They also carry risks, because workers borrowed from support functions may not have the background needed for complex tax work, while the divisions they leave behind must operate with fewer employees of their own.
One IRS employee described the reallocations as “setting this agency up for failure.” The remark captured concerns inside the agency about asking staff without deep tax experience to handle return-season work under tight deadlines.
Outside analysts have also pointed to the mismatch between staffing and workload. Mariani, tax expert at Alpha Wealth Advisory, said, “As the agency deals with unprecedented staff shortages, there are simply fewer people managing the same, likely increased, amount of work.”
That pressure has arrived during a filing season shaped by OBBBA tax breaks and the extra complexity that followed them. President Trump called it the “largest tax refund season of all time,” reflecting the volume and public focus surrounding refunds this year.
Even so, processing volume dipped slightly through March, suggesting that delays extend beyond the usual seasonal rush. Electronic filers, especially those who use direct deposit, still move through the system faster than others, but the broader slowdown has raised wait times across multiple channels.
For taxpayers, the gap between filing and receiving money can depend heavily on how a return reaches the IRS. Electronic returns with direct deposit remain the fastest path to a refund, while paper returns and amended filings are more exposed to manual review and staffing bottlenecks.
The service strain does not stop at refund issuance. Phone lines are under heavier pressure, and taxpayers seeking help through Taxpayer Assistance Centers can expect longer waits as those offices operate with fluctuating hours after reopening following the shutdown.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the department is using artificial intelligence in customer service and call centers in an effort to ease some of the load. The push reflects a broader effort to compensate for lower staffing through automation and digital support.
But the rollout has faced bugs linked to cuts in information technology. That has limited how much relief those tools can provide during a season when taxpayers are already running into delays at several points in the system.
The combined effect is a filing season in which taxpayers may find no single source of delay. A return can take longer because it is filed on paper, because it includes an error, because it falls under a new OBBBA provision, because a call center cannot answer as many calls, or because workers trained for tax-season tasks arrived too late to make a difference before the deadline.
For the IRS, the hiring gap is particularly stark because the window for useful training is short. Bringing on 50 people out of 2,200 authorized hires by late December 2025 left little time to prepare new staff for the filing season, especially when training itself requires 60-80 days.
That timing problem ripples across the system. It reduces the pool of workers who can process original and amended returns, leaves more seasoned staff handling higher volumes, and pushes the agency to rely on temporary details from HR, IT and other offices.
The numbers in the TIGTA report point to a structural problem rather than a short-term staffing hiccup. A workforce down by approximately 19,000 employees from 2021 levels, combined with the loss of 8,300 workers in submission processing and accounts management, leaves less room for the agency to absorb disruptions such as a shutdown or new tax law changes.
Taxpayers looking to avoid the longest waits have a narrow set of options. Filing electronically and choosing direct deposit offers the best chance of faster processing, while avoiding paper returns or amendments during peak season may reduce the odds of getting caught in the manual review queue.
Checking refund status through IRS tools may also help taxpayers track progress without adding to phone congestion. Even so, longer waits for live assistance remain likely as the filing deadline approaches and the agency works through backlogs with reduced staffing.
The broader picture is that the IRS entered the 2026 filing season with fewer workers, slower hiring, lower service targets and a backlog that had already swelled to 2 million items. TIGTA’s warning that the strain “may affect the IRS’s ability to timely process tax returns. resulting in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds” now hangs over the weeks before April 15.
