2026 Objectives Report to Congress

Report Highlights

Preface: National Taxpayer Advocate’s Introductory Remarks

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News Release

Newsroom

Systemic Advocacy Objectives

“The IRS has rebounded to provide much improved taxpayer service. This year marked its third consecutive year of delivering a generally successful filing season, and by some measures, it was the smoothest yet. Most taxpayers filed their returns and paid their taxes or received their refunds without any delays or intervention from the IRS.”

Erin M. Collins, National Taxpayer Advocate

Review of the 2025 Filing Season

Filing Season (FS) 2025 unfolded during a period of significant change, but the IRS provided a generally successful filing season and continued to build on its recent customer service accomplishments.

Among the key FS 2025 achievements, the IRS:

Timely processed over 98 percent of individual returns;
Issued refunds for more than 60 percent of filed individual returns;
Provided taxpayers with the ability to e-file 22 additional tax forms;
Achieved an 87 percent Level of Service with only a three-minute average call wait time on its Accounts Management toll-free phone lines;
Provided a callback option 2.6 million times when customer service representatives were projected to be able to call the taxpayer back;
Provided taxpayers with the ability to download nine types of information returns for tax year (TY) 2024 using Individual Online Accounts; and
Offered 15,000 extended weekday hours at Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

These achievements reflect meaningful progress. Most taxpayers successfully filed their returns without encountering significant difficulties, and the IRS’s core operations continued to run relatively smoothly.

Read the Full Review of the 2025 Filing Season

TAS Research Objectives

TAS Research Objectives focus on understanding how IRS procedures affect taxpayers and how taxpayers react to IRS actions. The objectives of TAS Research are to improve IRS operations and assist the IRS with balancing its compliance and enforcement efforts with taxpayer rights while also reducing taxpayer burden.

In FY 2026, TAS will study two initiatives.

Explore Ways the IRS Can Use Modern Technology to Improve Taxpayer Service
Study the Impact of the IRS’s Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics Outreach to Increase Earned Income Tax Credit Participation by Eligible Taxpayers Without Children

Read All TAS Research Objectives