In the first days of the 2026 tax filing season, the IRS is facing competing assessments about whether it can handle taxpayers’ needs as staffing shrinks and new tax-law provisions take hold. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins, in her annual report to Congress released Wednesday—two days after the season began—said the outlook for taxpayers who run into filing problems is likely to be tougher than it was in 2025.
Collins said 2025’s filing season proceeded without major disruptions, but she cautioned that “entering 2026, the landscape is markedly different,” pointing to the combined effect of staffing reductions, leadership changes, and large-scale legal updates. In her report, she said the IRS is “simultaneously confronting a reduction of 27% of its workforce, leadership turnover, and the implementation of extensive and complex tax law changes” that Republicans’ tax and spending measure set out and President Donald Trump signed last summer.
Collins wrote that many taxpayers should still be able to file returns and get refunds without delay, but she made clear that the filing season’s performance will hinge on the IRS’s ability to assist people who need help. “The success of the filing season will be defined by how well the IRS is able to assist the millions of taxpayers who experience problems,” she said, according to her report.
At the same time, top administration officials have said they expect the 2026 season to run smoothly. The tax filing season began on Monday, and IRS and Treasury leaders, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano, have said they anticipate no major disruptions, the Associated Press reported. Bisignano also sent a letter to the agency’s roughly 74,000 employees last week describing new priorities and a reorganization of executive leadership and saying he was “confident that with this new team in place, the IRS is well-prepared to deliver a successful tax filing season for the American public.”
Collins’ concerns come as other watchdogs warn that staffing shortfalls could limit the IRS’s responsiveness during peak demand. Diana M. Tengesdal, deputy inspector general for audit at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, wrote to IRS leadership on Monday and pointed to staffing at October 2021 levels alongside “thousands of unprocessed tax returns and taxpayer correspondence,” according to the AP. Her office said that while the IRS has undertaken modernization efforts, “initiatives to offset staffing losses may not yield expected benefits during the 2026 Filing Season.”
The Associated Press also reported that the IRS started 2025 with about 102,000 employees and ended with about 74,000 after a series of firings and layoffs tied to the Department of Government Efficiency. This year, the AP said, many customer service workers have left, and it noted that during the 2025 filing season, employees were not allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until after the taxpayer filing deadline.
Outside experts and tax practitioners have echoed concerns about delays affecting taxpayers who are waiting on refund-related claims. Glen Frost, managing partner of Frost Law, which focuses on tax and litigation, said his firm was seeing “numerous instances where the deadline is running out on taxpayer refund claims.” “Real people’s livelihoods are at stake with the continuing IRS delays,” Frost said.
Even with these warnings, the IRS’s leadership message going into the season remains focused on readiness. Bessent and others in Trump’s second administration have promised American taxpayers “substantial tax refunds,” framing the expectation of refunds as part of the administration’s response to an affordability crisis, the AP reported.
The differing assessments suggest that the season’s outcome may turn less on whether most returns are processed and more on what happens when taxpayers need problem-solving support. More than 165 million individual income tax returns were processed in 2025, with 94% submitted electronically, and the average refund was $3,167, the AP said. Collins’ report, released as the 2026 season began, argues that the IRS’s reduced workforce and new requirements will be tested most sharply in those problem cases.