IRS staffing cuts might delay your tax refunds this yr

You filed your taxes, triple-checked the numbers, and hit submit. Now you might be watching your checking account like a hawk, ready for that refund to land. However this yr, the wait would possibly check your endurance greater than regular.

The IRS is heading into the center of tax season with the smallest workforce it has had in years. The company shed roughly 28,000 staff over the course of 2025, a staggering drop that has gutted customer support traces, slowed onboarding for seasonal hires, and created a backlog of unresolved returns from prior years that also has not been cleared.

On the identical time, the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act launched over 100 modifications to the tax code, a lot of them retroactive, making this season some of the sophisticated in current reminiscence. The mix of fewer employees and extra complicated returns has watchdogs, tax professionals, and taxpayers asking the identical query.

“Will your refund actually show up on time?”

The IRS misplaced greater than 1 / 4 of its employees in a single yr.

The IRS started 2025 with roughly 102,000 staff. By December, the headcount had dropped to about 74,000, a 27% discount, in response to the Nationwide Taxpayer Advocate’s 2025 Annual Report back to Congress.

The cuts hit almost each division of the company, and lots of the departing staff had been skilled employees whose institutional data can’t be simply changed.

The losses had been particularly extreme in departments that straight serve you as a taxpayer. The Taxpayer Providers division, which handles telephone calls, correspondence, and in-person help, misplaced 21% of its workforce.

The Small Enterprise/Self-Employed division, liable for serving to small enterprise house owners and freelancers navigate their obligations, noticed a discount of greater than 37%.

The Data Know-how division, which maintains the methods that really course of your return, was lower by 25%, and the departments that deal with processing authentic and amended returns, catching errors, and resolving fraud circumstances misplaced 17% of their employees, in response to the Nationwide Taxpayer Advocate’s Fiscal 12 months 2026 Goals Report back to Congress.

Seasonal hiring fell far not on time

The IRS sometimes brings on hundreds of short-term employees every year to deal with the crush of tax season. This yr, that pipeline broke down. The late 2025 authorities shutdown and modifications to federal hiring processes delayed onboarding throughout the board.

As of December 2025, the division liable for processing authentic and amended returns had onboarded simply 2% of the seasonal staff it deliberate to rent, in response to the Yahoo Private Finance report citing the Taxpayer Advocate’s findings.

Even when new hires do come by way of the door, onboarding takes as much as 80 days, which means a lot of these employees is not going to be totally educated earlier than the April 15 submitting deadline passes.

Cellphone assist is very skinny

The division that assists taxpayers by telephone and in individual was solely capable of deliver on 66% of the employees it wanted for this tax season. The staff who did get employed obtained modified coaching on account of time constraints. 

As a substitute of resolving your points straight, many of those new representatives are restricted to screening calls, answering fundamental questions, and routing you to a different division. In case your return will get flagged or you’ve got a query concerning the new tax legislation, getting a educated individual on the road might take considerably longer than in previous years.

New tax legislation modifications are making returns tougher to course of

The One Huge Stunning Invoice Act revamped 100 modifications to the tax code, efficient retroactively to January 1, 2025.

Whereas many of those provisions profit taxpayers, together with new above-the-line deductions for suggestions, time beyond regulation pay, and auto mortgage curiosity, in addition to a $6,000 senior deduction for retirees, in addition they introduce layers of complexity that the IRS should navigate with fewer folks.

Nationwide Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins put it straight in her 2025 Annual Report back to Congress: the OBBBA’s deductions and advantages are topic to complicated eligibility guidelines, revenue thresholds, and phase-outs that many taxpayers will battle to grasp, and the IRS will discover tough to manage precisely throughout submitting season.

What does that imply for you in follow?

For those who qualify for one of many new deductions however apply it incorrectly, your return might get flagged for evaluate. That evaluate course of takes longer when there are fewer staff to deal with it. 

For those who name the IRS for steerage on whether or not you qualify for the tip or time beyond regulation deduction, the one who solutions might not have the coaching to offer you a transparent reply.

For those who filed a Schedule 1-A to assert one of many OBBBA deductions, you might be considered one of almost 15 million filers who submitted that kind, in response to IRS submitting season knowledge, including one other layer of processing demand on a shrinking workforce.

A 2-million-return backlog remains to be lingering from final yr

Even earlier than this tax season began, the IRS was already behind. A backlog of roughly 2 million returns from earlier submitting years remained unresolved heading into 2026. Whereas the company stored hundreds of staff working by way of the October and November 2025 authorities shutdown, progress on that backlog was minimal.

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Meaning the identical lowered workforce now juggling 164 million new returns additionally has to clear outdated stock. In case your return from a previous yr is caught in that pile, you can be ready even longer for a decision.

In 2025, about 3.6 million taxpayers obtained their refunds past the IRS’s regular processing window, with e-filers ready a mean of seven weeks and paper filers ready 14 weeks, the Taxpayer Advocate’s report discovered.

Paper returns face the steepest delays

The IRS has been pushing to transform paper returns to digital format, however the automated methods wanted to make that conversion occur haven’t been totally accomplished on account of workforce losses.

For those who file on paper, your return will take longer to enter the system and be processed. The IRS itself has mentioned digital submitting with direct deposit is the quickest strategy to get your cash, and in 2026, that hole between e-filers and paper filers is prone to be even wider.

Early submitting season numbers present a blended image

The IRS expects roughly 164 million particular person tax returns to be filed for the 2025 tax yr, in response to its 2026 submitting season announcement. Early knowledge paints an fascinating, if uneven, image of how the season is taking part in out up to now.

Key early-season stats

• As of late February 2026, the IRS had obtained about 2.6% fewer returns than in the identical interval in 2025 and processed about 3.1% fewer returns, in response to Tax Notes.
• The typical refund as of late February was $3,742, up 10.6% from $3,382 on the identical level final yr, per the Tax Basis.
• Visits to IRS.gov had been working 42% greater than the identical time in 2025, possible reflecting heightened taxpayer curiosity within the new OBBBA provisions.
• The IRS had issued 36.5 million refunds as of late February 2026, in comparison with 36.9 million on the identical level final yr.

The refund numbers look sturdy on common, however the slight dip in processing quantity is a sign price watching. If that hole persists by way of March, it might point out the staffing cuts are slowing the company’s skill to maintain tempo with incoming filings.

5 steps it’s best to take to guard your refund

You can’t management what number of staff the IRS has, however you may management the way you file and what you do afterward. These steps will assist you keep away from the commonest delays.

Your refund safety guidelines

• File electronically and select direct deposit: The IRS has phased out paper refund checks beneath Government Order 14247. If you don’t present checking account or direct deposit particulars, your refund might be frozen or considerably delayed. E-filing with direct deposit stays the quickest strategy to obtain your refund, with most refunds arriving inside 21 days.
• Double-check your eligibility for brand spanking new OBBBA deductions: For those who earned suggestions, labored time beyond regulation, financed an American-made automobile, or turned 65 in 2025, you might qualify for brand spanking new above-the-line deductions on Schedule 1-A. These deductions have particular eligibility guidelines and revenue phaseouts. Claiming one you don’t qualify for might set off a evaluate and push your refund again by weeks.
• Observe your refund utilizing IRS instruments: The The place’s My Refund? software updates 24 hours after the IRS receives an e-filed return and 4 weeks after receiving a paper return. You can too examine by way of the IRS2Go cellular app or your IRS Particular person On-line Account.
• Use on-line IRS assets as an alternative of calling: With telephone assist stretched skinny, the IRS’s self-service instruments are your greatest guess: The Interactive Tax Assistant can reply questions on submitting necessities, deductions, and credit and not using a maintain time.
• Replace your W-4 now for 2026: In case you are getting a considerably bigger refund this yr, it possible means you had been over-withholding all through 2025. Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator to regulate your W-4 so you retain more cash in every paycheck going ahead, quite than lending it to the federal government interest-free.

Some taxpayers face a better danger of delays than others

Not each filer will expertise issues. For those who file electronically, declare the usual deduction, and supply direct deposit data, the IRS says your return ought to transfer by way of the system shortly. The folks most in danger for delays are these whose returns require extra human evaluate.

Filers almost definitely to see prolonged wait occasions

• Paper filers: Automated methods to transform paper returns to digital haven’t been totally applied. Paper returns take considerably longer to course of, and that hole is widening this yr.
• Filers with errors or lacking data: Returns that get flagged for errors, incomplete knowledge, or potential fraud require guide evaluate. With fewer brokers out there, these critiques will take longer.
• OBBBA deduction claimants: In case your return features a Schedule 1-A for the brand new tip, time beyond regulation, or auto mortgage deductions, there’s a greater likelihood of processing scrutiny, particularly within the early months of implementation.
• Identification theft victims: Decision occasions for identification theft circumstances averaged greater than 21 months throughout 2025. The Taxpayer Advocate has known as these delays “unconscionable,” and staffing reductions are unlikely to enhance them.
• Amended return filers: For those who already filed with out claiming an eligible OBBBA deduction and must submit a Type 1040-X, count on your amended return to hitch a backlog that was already 2 million returns deep earlier than this season began.

Larger refunds don’t essentially imply higher information

The typical refund this season has climbed to roughly $3,742, up greater than 10% from final yr, in response to IRS knowledge compiled by the Tax Basis. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has known as 2026 probably the most important refund season on file. That appears like a win, however there may be context it’s best to perceive.

A bigger refund doesn’t imply you paid much less in taxes. It means you overpaid all year long, and the federal government is returning the surplus. The OBBBA deductions boosting refunds this yr had been retroactive, however employers didn’t alter withholding tables instantly after the legislation handed in mid-2025.

So, within the second half of 2025, many employees had an excessive amount of taken from each paycheck beneath the outdated guidelines.

Associated: The IRS Says Tax Refunds are Up 10%

The true monetary profit for most individuals is not going to come from this yr’s refund. It’s going to come from up to date withholding in 2026 that places more cash in your paycheck every interval, as an alternative of constructing you wait till subsequent spring to get it again.

Overview your W-4 after you obtain your refund so you aren’t giving the federal government one other interest-free mortgage for 12 months.

The Taxpayer Advocate’s warning you want to hear

Erin M. Collins, the Nationwide Taxpayer Advocate, has been direct concerning the dangers going through taxpayers this season. In her 2025 Annual Report back to Congress, she famous that the 2025 submitting season went effectively partially as a result of the IRS had its largest workforce in a few years and confronted no main tax legislation modifications. Coming into 2026, she wrote, the panorama is markedly completely different.

Collins acknowledged that almost all taxpayers who file electronically with direct deposit and whose returns aren’t stopped by processing filters could have a clean expertise. However the true check of the submitting season, she wrote, might be outlined by how effectively the IRS assists the tens of millions of taxpayers who encounter issues.

In case your return is simple, you might be possible tremendous. If one thing goes mistaken, you want a query answered, or your return will get flagged, that is the yr the place endurance and preparation matter greater than ever.