If dealing with the IRS has felt a lot more difficult lately, you’re not imagining it. Staffing changes, processing delays, system disruptions, and growing backlogs are creating challenges for taxpayers and tax professionals alike. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes and what to expect when dealing with the IRS.
All things go through different seasons of change and transformation, and right now the IRS is in a season of high pressure and disruption. If you’re feeling the weight of that pressure when dealing with the IRS, you’re not alone. Taxpayers, tax professionals, and, to the same extent, the IRS, have boarded a ship that set sail into an open storm of destructive waves and disarray.
So, how did we get here, and how can we navigate the disruption until the storm clears?
How We Got Here
In January 2025, an executive order from the current administration established the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. The stated initiative was to cut government spending and modernize technology to improve governmental efficiency. Nearly a month later, the IRS laid off more than 6,000 probationary employees as part of broader federal workforce reductions, creating uncertainty for taxpayers, tax professionals, and IRS employees alike.
The reductions didn’t end there. Over the following year, the IRS lost more than a quarter of its workforce, including employees responsible for taxpayer assistance, account resolution, processing, technology, and other critical operations.
The timing was significant because the IRS had recently been making measurable improvements in taxpayer service. In 2024, the agency invested heavily in staffing and expanded access to assistance. As an example, the weekend of the April 15, 2024 deadline saw walk-in centers open across the country to better serve taxpayers, particularly those who worked during the week and could not easily visit an IRS office or call during normal business hours.
The first-come, first-served assistance offered at more than 70 centers saw strong turnout, while IRS assistor lines handled millions more calls with significantly shorter wait times. The IRS appeared to be turning a corner, but that progress would prove difficult to sustain.
While DOGE’s stated goal was to improve technology use and government efficiency, the workforce reductions disrupted some of the IRS’s recent progress in staffing, service, and modernization. Losing employees did more than reduce the number of people answering phones. It also removed experienced employees from processing, technology, account management, and other areas responsible for keeping IRS operations moving.
By 2026, those losses were beginning to show up in measurable ways.
The Current Conditions of the IRS
Today, there are fewer experienced employees available to assist with complex issues, resulting in longer wait times and fewer calls actually reaching agents. Correspondence and account adjustments are taking longer, and individual paper returns took about twice as long to process during the 2026 filing season as they did in 2025, in part because staffing losses delayed critical system programming updates.
That does not mean the entire IRS has stopped functioning. Most electronically filed returns continue to process normally. The pressure becomes much more visible when a taxpayer’s situation requires human intervention; a notice, account correction, paper filing, collection issue, delayed refund, or another problem that cannot be resolved automatically.
Tax professionals are also finding that reaching an agent does not necessarily mean reaching a resolution. In some cases, representatives may not have the training or authority needed to address more complicated issues, creating another layer of delay for the taxpayer.
For taxpayers, those operational problems can turn what should be a straightforward resolution into days or even weeks of repeated calls and follow-up.
Picture this: An accountant is working to resolve a tax lien notice. They call Monday morning, but after two hours on hold, the line automatically disconnects. They try again Tuesday and finally reach a representative, only to learn the IRS system has crashed and they will have to call back.
Wednesday rolls around and they finally get through with a working system. This time, the problem is knowledge. Tax attorney Eric Green recently shared an example of a practitioner representing a taxpayer the IRS had already determined was uncollectible. Under IRC § 6343, the levy should have been released, but the IRS employee did not know how to release it. When the issue was escalated, the supervisor did not know how either.
Three days of trying, hours spent waiting, and the issue still is not resolved.
Riding the Storm Out Together
Waiting for a resolution with the IRS can feel painful for taxpayers, and it’s important to remember that tax professionals are their frontline advocates. We are here to be the professional you need and help bridge the gap between our clients and the IRS.
It’s also important to remember that the person on the other end of the phone is not the enemy. Many are longtime IRS employees trying to navigate a rapidly changing agency with fewer experienced colleagues, greater responsibility, and gaps in training and resources. Speed does not always equal progress.
That is where having a tax professional in your corner matters. We know the tax code, we know our clients, and we know when an answer does not align with the rules. Sometimes advocacy means calling again, escalating an issue, providing documentation again, or simply knowing when to keep pushing for the right resolution.
For taxpayers, navigating this environment may require a little more patience and preparation. Keep copies of IRS notices and correspondence, respond to requests promptly, and understand that resolution may take more than one phone call. Most importantly, don’t ignore an IRS notice simply because the agency is experiencing delays. The system may be under pressure, but response dates and taxpayer obligations still matter.
The storm may not clear overnight, but taxpayers don’t have to navigate it alone.