irs set for a turbulent 2026 season as tigta flags persistent weaknesses
heading into 2026, problems from the past several filing seasons are still unresolved.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the coming 2026 filing season is shaping up to be another high-stakes test of the internal revenue service’s capacity to serve taxpayers and practitioners, with new reports from the treasury inspector general for tax administration offering an unusually candid look at the agency’s most vulnerable operational seams.
taken together, the findings forecast a filing season characterized by incremental improvements in training but overshadowed by enduring structural constraints in telephone service, submission processing, identity verification, and staffing.
the reports analyze telephone professionalism, major management challenges for fiscal 2026, and systemic issues in return processing and taxpayer service. in practical terms, the irs may be more polite in 2026—but no more efficient.
busy season barometer: new code and an aging, understaffed irs top practitioners’ worry list.
while each report focuses on a different aspect of irs operations, the narrative they collectively form is consistent: the irs remains unable to keep pace with demand, lacks the technical infrastructure to fix its most chronic problems, and faces a compressed timeline to implement improvements promised for 2026.
for practitioners, these weaknesses are far more than academic. they shape wait times, refund cycles, identity verification roadblocks, responsiveness of the practitioner priority service line, and the ability to obtain transcripts or resolve client account issues.
the irs is heading into 2026 with many of the same pressures that strained the past several filing seasons.
call quality undercut by dropped calls and long holds
in its october report, tigta reviewed 831 randomly selected irs telephone calls across five major lines, including the practitioner priority service (pps), automated collection system, and key individual account applications. tigta’s analysis covered calls made in april and may 2024, a period that still represents peak taxpayer and practitioner interaction with the agency.
the irs scored well on courtesy in a majority of calls—tigta classified 94 percent as “professional”—but the remaining slice reveals deeper operational flaws.
according to the review, 11 percent of the calls tigta evaluated showed unprofessional or discourteous behavior. representatives rushed callers, spoke over taxpayers, or used dismissive tones. another three percent included excessively long hold times, ranging from 15 to 80 minutes, with some callers placed on hold a dozen times in a single interaction.
more disruptive, however, was the service interruption rate. tigta found that 15 percent of calls were dropped or disconnected, most often during hold periods or while being transferred. for those calls, tigta could not determine whether the representative, the taxpayer, or the irs phone systems themselves were responsible for the disconnection. what is clear is that neither the cause nor the remedy is fully understood, and the irs has acknowledged that it has no systemic method for tracking dropped-call origins.
aging self-service kiosks in a couple taxpayer assistance centers, photographed by tigta staff.
“irs management indicated that they do not have a systemic process to track the reason for dropped calls,” the report notes, and systemic tracking is unlikely in the near future because of technological limitations at irs call centers. the agency informed tigta that reporting remains “employee-driven,” which limits its usefulness in diagnosing root causes.
here, the implications for 2026 are obvious. the irs has not identified a way to reduce the 15 percent drop rate. without transparency into why calls disconnect, the agency cannot target reforms or investments. practitioners relying on pps—already one of the most strained lines—may continue to face disrupted calls, repeated callbacks, and extended time to resolve client issues.
training boosts are promised for 2026—but expectations should be tempered
the irs did agree with tigta’s recommendation to implement mandatory annual refresher training for all representatives who handle telephone inquiries. importantly, the irs set a specific implementation date: feb. 15, 2026.
this commitment suggests that, for the first time in several years, the irs is attempting to synchronize customer-service training with the actual filing season. the curriculum will emphasize courtesy, professionalism, proper holding procedures, clear communication, and the expectations outlined in the taxpayer bill of rights.
while this marks a positive step, the timing matters. february 15 falls deep into the early rush of the filing season, meaning the benefits of improved training may not be felt until later in the cycle. the first six weeks of the filing season—typically the highest volume for both taxpayers and practitioners—are likely to operate under pre-training norms.
the agency also says that it is expanding the use of voice bots, callback functions, and digital response tools to improve the experience for simple inquiries. these tools may reduce congestion on basic call types. still, tigta has repeatedly warned that such technology is less effective on complex cases, which disproportionately involve credits, identity protection, amended returns, or multi-year account discrepancies.
structural challenges continue unabated into fy 2026
a separate tigta report, “major management and performance challenges facing the irs in fiscal year 2026,” provides a broader institutional context for the 2026 filing season. the document says that the irs struggles with aging infrastructure and a still-fragile workforce.
among the most critical challenges:
taxpayer service limitations: the irs continues to operate with a short-staffed call center and submission processing units. turnover, training gaps, and resource constraints persist.
legacy technology: the irs continues to rely on the individual master file and business master file systems, which were built in the 1960s. modernization efforts are planned, but progress is slow.
improper payment and fraud verification pressures: identity verification and fraud-flagged returns continue to absorb manpower and create bottlenecks.
workforce attrition: hiring surges funded by the inflation reduction act have slowed, and staffing levels are plateauing.
these challenges have direct consequences for front-line operations. even if call agents are courteous, the systems they rely on do not fully support consistent service. identity-verification workloads continue to pull staff away from taxpayer service, slowing down both processing and outreach. modernization remains years from reaching meaningful milestones.
the irs is attempting to stabilize performance for 2026, but tigta makes clear that the service’s underlying weaknesses are not merely tactical—they are structural.
refund and case-resolution delays expected to continue
a third report deals with submission processing, error resolution, and systemic case delays. while the parsed text points to a standard filing-season audit, the content aligns with tigta’s recurring concerns: error-resolution delays, correspondence backlogs, and identity-theft case carryovers.
the irs faces long delays in reviewing returns that require manual corrections, including those with the earned income tax credit, child tax credit, or identity-flagged issues. many of these returns are forwarded to specialized units, where staffing lags and high inventories have been the norm.
for taxpayers, the consequences are predictable. returns flagged for review often remain in limbo for weeks or months. refunds are delayed. notices are mailed well in advance of a representative becoming available to resolve the issue. practitioners face the added burden of contacting pps or escalating cases through taxpayer advocate service channels.
identity theft victim assistance workloads are also likely to carry unresolved 2025 cases into the 2026 season. historically, this unit experiences some of the longest processing times in the irs, often measured in months rather than weeks.
persisting pressure points for practitioners
for cpas, enrolled agents, and tax attorneys, the tigta reports collectively signal a filing season where key friction points will remain unresolved:
pps unpredictability: although wait times may improve slightly due to automation, complex matters still require human intervention, and the irs has not increased staffing proportionally.
dropped transfers: with no technical fix in place, disconnections during escalations or transfers remain likely.
transcript delays: high demand during early filing weeks can strain transcript systems.
refund delays on identity-flagged returns: cases routed to manual review or verification units are prone to lengthy processing times.
paper returns continue to lag: manual transcription and data-entry bottlenecks remain a recurring issue.
the irs acknowledges these challenges in its responses but has not yet mapped out a tangible path toward eliminating them for 2026.
better courtesy but not better capacity
if the irs fulfills its training commitments, taxpayers and practitioners may notice a noticeable improvement in tone and professionalism during interactions with agents. but courtesy is not the same as capacity.
tigta’s findings illustrate a tradeoff that will likely define the 2026 filing season: courteous agents working within a system that cannot fully support the service expectations of congress, taxpayers, or the profession.
the 2026 filing season, therefore, should be viewed as a transition year—one in which the irs begins implementing customer-service reforms but lacks the necessary infrastructure, staffing, and technology to deliver a full transformation. the agency’s modernization projects continue to move forward, but none are far enough along to materially reshape filing-season operations.
for practitioners, vigilance will be essential. the coming filing season will require contingency planning, persistence on follow-up, and early filing strategies for returns at risk of identity flags or error-correction queues. frequent use of online tools will be beneficial, but human intervention will still be necessary for many issues.
