The Internal Revenue Service answered just 73% of taxpayer phone calls during the 2026 tax filing season, down sharply from the 87% reported the previous year, according to a mid-year update released by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The organization, which publishes an annual evaluation of IRS performance, found that the agency "moved the goalposts" by switching to a new measurement system while simultaneously lowering its service targets. The update focuses specifically on taxpayer service quality, an area where the foundation had conditionally raised the IRS grade earlier this year based on expected improvements.
The IRS replaced its old Level of Service metric with a new Assistor Service Rate that includes both phone calls and live chat interactions, while also cutting its target from 85% to 70% due to staffing shortages. Despite the lower bar, the agency barely exceeded its goal, reaching 73% even as call volume dropped 11% from the prior year. Call wait times doubled between the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons, according to data from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. A separate metric tracked by the inspector general, called Level of Access, showed that only 44% of all calls seeking help actually received assistance across all phone lines—well below the 73% figure the IRS reported using its narrower measurement.
According to the report, "the IRS seems to have provided service well below prior expectations" with its new metric tracking a rate of 73% instead of last year's 85%. The foundation notes that none of the existing metrics convey the quality of service provided to taxpayers, a problem that's become more pressing as the new system counts both phone and live chat contacts. The Treasury Inspector General recently flagged that the IRS doesn't have a process to evaluate the accuracy and completion of live chat interactions—the system currently used is so flawed it showed one agent handling more than 600 chats at the same time.
Both the Government Accountability Office and the Treasury Inspector General identified staffing shortages as the primary driver behind the weak performance during this filing season. IRS officials told the GAO that pulling customer service representatives off phone lines to handle written correspondence helped reduce backlogs, but that shift clearly hurt phone and chat performance. The report argues the agency should have enough employees to handle both functions simultaneously. While technological upgrades like allowing more correspondence to be uploaded electronically could help fill gaps, it remains unclear what specific technology improvements are being deployed to address low staffing and rising demand for online services.
The report concludes that the IRS should hire enough customer service representatives to adequately staff all service functions and roll out new technologies to both improve taxpayer access and streamline agent workflows before the next filing season. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation plans to incorporate the full 2026 filing season results into its next annual IRS performance evaluation. Congress can play a more active role in demanding progress through provisions in the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which would strengthen multiple aspects of tax administration, the foundation says.