IRS did better than expected in tax season after slashing staff, except on the phone, watchdog says

The IRS performed better than expected in processing tax refunds during the 2026 tax season despite significant workforce reductions, but struggled with phone service and long wait times for identity theft victims. A watchdog report highlighted 59% of major account calls were answered, while compliance and identity theft lines had 34% and 19% answer rates, respectively. Over 500,000 identity theft victims face average resolution times of 20 months.