{"id":690,"date":"2026-06-25T21:44:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=690"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:44:46","slug":"2026-tax-season-largely-successful-despite-doge-cuts-watchdog-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=690","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tax Season \u2018Largely Successful\u2019 Despite DOGE Cuts, Watchdog Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 2026 tax filing season was \u201clargely successful\u201d despite deep cuts to the Internal Revenue Service made by Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency last year, according to the agency\u2019s independent watchdog arm.<\/p>\n

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The results, compiled in a Thursday report<\/u><\/span> by Erin Collins, the national taxpayer advocate, come as a surprise after nearly a third of the IRS workforce was lost amid President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to shake up the federal workforce. The report mostly celebrates the nearly 139 million individual tax returns and the more than 90 million refunds processed this season, but found that millions of filers who needed additional assistance often struggled to receive support.<\/p>\n

Collins acknowledged the \u201cconsiderable uncertainty about the IRS\u2019s ability to successfully manage\u201d 2026 filing season, but issued a mostly positive report of the revenue service\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, the IRS performed better than expected in most respects,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThe vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though this year\u2019s season was broadly successful, Collins \u2014 whose independent organization serves as the official voice for taxpayers \u2014 said filers \u201cwho required assistance from the IRS often struggled to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millions of taxpayers depending on the returns waited weeks or months<\/u><\/span> for their frozen funds to go through, and filers calling the IRS \u201coften could not reach a live employee despite repeated attempts,\u201d according to Collins\u2019 report. Some filers also faced weeks-long delays for their refunds due to the IRS\u2019s attempt to wean the government off paper checks, the IRS announced<\/u><\/span> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Musk, the billionaire and on-again-off-again Trump ally, aggressively targeted<\/u><\/span> the IRS while running DOGE, permanently reshaping the agency through layoffs and buyout packages.<\/p>\n

The IRS cut more than 28,000 employees last year, but an internal memorandum obtained by NOTUS revealed<\/u><\/span> the agency ultimately requested, and received, special authority earlier this year to hire 8,000 employees on an expedited basis. The hiring campaign is still ongoing.<\/p>\n

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The IRS reassigned information technology and human resources staff with no relevant tax experience to process tax returns this year, NOTUS reported<\/u><\/span> in June.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration publicly downplayed potential staffing shortages for this year\u2019s tax season.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a testimony to Congress in June, called any concerns over the cuts to the IRS \u201ca complete fallacy.\u201d Frank Bisignano, CEO of the IRS, told Congress in March that he felt \u201cgood\u201d about the 75,000 employees the agency currently had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve yet to find one piece of paper that explained why that was the right number,\u201d Bisignano said regarding the 100,000 employees the IRS had under President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration said it was using DOGE to root out alleged \u201cwaste, fraud and abuse\u201d in the federal government, as well as reducing overall spending. Musk said last year that he hoped to reduce<\/u><\/span> the federal budget by $2 trillion, but he later reduced that benchmark to $150 billion.<\/p>\n

According to an analysis conducted by the libertarian Cato Institute, DOGE\u2019s cuts represented the largest peacetime workforce reduction in American history \u2014 but had little effect on overall spending. The federal deficit is projected to grow by $200 million this fiscal year, Cato found.<\/p>\n

Read more A Judge Won\u2019t Drop the Lawsuit Against Trump\u2019s \u2018Anti-Weaponization\u2019 Fund<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest impact came for filers attempting to speak with IRS representatives, who faced longer-than-usual wait times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agencies"],"yoast_head":"\n2026 Tax Season \u2018Largely Successful\u2019 Despite DOGE Cuts, Watchdog Finds - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=690\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2026 Tax Season \u2018Largely Successful\u2019 Despite DOGE Cuts, Watchdog Finds - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The biggest impact came for filers attempting to speak with IRS representatives, who faced longer-than-usual wait times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=690\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T21:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"2026 Tax Season \u2018Largely Successful\u2019 Despite DOGE Cuts, Watchdog Finds\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T21:44:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690\"},\"wordCount\":574,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/08ce6fa01bb076209fe11f7313d53e53-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Agencies\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690\",\"name\":\"2026 Tax Season \u2018Largely Successful\u2019 Despite DOGE Cuts, Watchdog Finds - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/08ce6fa01bb076209fe11f7313d53e53-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T21:44:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=690#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/08ce6fa01bb076209fe11f7313d53e53-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/08ce6fa01bb076209fe11f7313d53e53-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Building is seen in Washington, DC on February 18, 2025. 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