Today, Senators Reverend Warnock and Finance Ranking Member Wyden led an effort urging the Trump administration to stop hiring freezes, reduction-in-force efforts, and other operational strains at the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS)
TAS helps taxpayers resolve their issues at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including with tax refunds, filings, and other issues
At its current staffing level, TAS may face significant challenges handling its current caseload and helping taxpayers in Georgia and across the country get their full tax refund
Senator Warnock and lawmakers: “TAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS. […] We are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS and the ongoing hiring freeze will greatly hinder these advocates’ ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help”
ICYMI from 11Alive: Warnock urges Trump administration to restore IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service staffing
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Finance Ranking MemberRon Wyden (D-OR) led an effort, alongside 22 of their Senate Democratic colleagues, urging the Trump administration to help Americans get their full refund by restoring staff and resources at the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), which is an office within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that helps taxpayers resolve any issues within the IRS.
At its current staffing level, TAS may face significant challenges handling its current caseload and helping taxpayers in Georgia and across the country. The Senators are urging Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent to stop hiring freezes, reduction-in-force efforts, and properly staff TAS.
“TAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS […] We are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS and the ongoing hiring freeze will greatly hinder these advocates’ ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help,” wrote the Senators.
“Since January, the Trump Administration’s deferred resignation programs and efforts to reduce the federal workforce have resulted in nearly one in four TAS advocates departing the IRS […] According to the National Taxpayer Advocates FY2026 Report to Congress, these losses of IRS customer service personnel have created “vulnerabilities in service delivery…and taxpayer assistance.” We are concerned that the rapid decrease in staff will increase remaining advocate’s case load and taxpayers’ wait times for service,” the Senators continued.
TAS is an independent organization within the IRS and is considered the voice of the taxpayer at the IRS. TAS helps taxpayers with financial issues with tax refunds, filings, and other problems.
“According to the January 20, 2025, Presidential Memorandum, the IRS hiring freeze will remain in place until the Secretary of the Treasury determines that ending it is in the “national interest.” […] We expect you agree with us that ensuring Americans can access their full tax benefits in a timely manner falls squarely within the “national interest,” the Senators concluded.
In addition to Senator Warnock, the letter was signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (D-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI).
The letter text can be found HERE and below.
Dear Secretary Bessent,
We write to urge you to lift the freeze on hiring additional staff at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and ensure that both the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) have enough staff to ensure they meet the needs of the American taxpayers.
Dedicated TAS advocates resolve over 230,000 taxpayer issues with the IRS every year.[1] From helping a disabled first responder receive their refund[2] to resolving a decade-long problem with a taxpayer’s railroad worker’s retirement tax that was holding up his refund,[3] TAS ensures the American people have a voice within the IRS.
Although we understand there may be some isolated instances of hiring for internal positions at TAS, we are concerned that the recent personnel cuts at TAS[4] and the ongoing hiring freeze[5] will greatly hinder these advocates’ ability to provide quality, timely service to taxpayers who need help. Moreover, the IRS operating divisions need enough employees to be able to implement TAS’s requests for their assistance in resolving taxpayer problems.[6]
Since January, the Trump Administration’s deferred resignation programs and efforts to reduce the federal workforce have resulted in nearly one in four TAS advocates departing the IRS.[7] To further compound staffing issues, the Trump Administration’s freeze[8] on hiring additional personnel across the IRS remains in place, making it impossible to appropriately backfill TAS staff at the levels needed to address the workload.
According to the National Taxpayer Advocates FY2026 Report to Congress, these losses of IRS customer service personnel have created “vulnerabilities in service delivery . . . and taxpayer assistance.”[9] We are concerned that the rapid decrease in staff will increase remaining advocates’ caseloads and taxpayers’ wait times for service.
Our Congressional casework teams are already seeing delays in responses and case resolution. For example, in January, a taxpayer in Georgia reached out to TAS about an issue with a tax return. Despite submitting the correct paperwork in a timely manner and multiple inquiries from Congressional caseworkers, the most recent update as of December was that the case was still being processed. This is too long for a taxpayer to wait for answers.
Many IRS employees who accepted deferred resignation offers were required to stay to support the 2025 tax filing season,[10] so we have not seen the full detrimental effects of the staffing cuts. If these shortages are not addressed, the repercussions will likely be felt during the 2026 tax season.[11]
According to the January 20, 2025 Presidential Memorandum, the IRS hiring freeze will remain in place until the Secretary of the Treasury determines that hiring additional IRS employees, including TAS caseworkers, is in the “national interest.”[12] The complex nature of TAS’s work demands an intense training process[13] and requires current advocates to limit their existing casework to assist.[14] With significant changes to the tax code for this upcoming filing season,[15] hiring for TAS position must begin as soon as possible.
We expect you agree with us that ensuring Americans can access their full tax benefits in a timely manner falls squarely within the “national interest.” We urge you to immediately lift the IRS hiring freeze and to respond to the questions below by January 23, 2026, to provide additional clarity to the American people regarding IRS administration and service:
- What criteria are you using to evaluate what is in the “national interest” with respect to the TAS hiring freeze? Do these criteria include case backlogs, current wait times, demand on caseworkers, and increased complexity due to new tax laws? If not, why?
- What is the current average caseload of tax advocates?
- What is the average wait time for tax advocates to resolve taxpayers’ cases?
- At the end of the last filing season victims of identity theft had to wait 20 months to resolve their cases, on average.[16] What is a reasonable wait time for taxpayers to receive assistance on issues like late tax returns or identity fraud from TAS? What is the current wait time for these cases, and what is the IRS doing to reduce it?
- If TAS is unable to meet its casework demands or if the IRS is unable to process all of TAS’s requests for operational assistance, what cases will be prioritized? Which taxpayers will have longer to wait to have their problems resolved?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
###
[1] Improvements to Taxpayer Advocate Case Processing Would Result in Better Customer Service, 2025-100-024, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Jun. 11, 2025), https://www.tigta.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2025-08/2025100024fr.pdf at 3 (Figure 2: Case Advocacy Receipts, Closures, and Cycle Time for FYs 2020 through 2024).
[2] TAS Advocates for a First Responder, Taxpayer Advocate Service (Nov. 18, 2024), https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/success-stories/tas-advocates-for-a-first-responder/2024/11.
[3] Taxpayer Advocate Service Helps Taxpayer Resolve 15 Years of Hardship, Taxpayer Advocate Service (Sept. 20, 2021), https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/success-stories/success-story-taxpayer-advocate-service-helps-taxpayer-resolve-15-years-of-hardship/2021/09.
[4] Objective Report to Congress Fiscal Year 2026, National Taxpayer Advocate (Jun. 25, 2025), https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/JRC26_FullReport.pdf at 19 (Figure 1.3, IRS Personnel Losses by BOD/Function (as of June 4, 2025)) [FY26 Report to Congress].
[5] Hiring Freeze Presidential Memorandum, White House (Jan. 20, 2025), https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze.
[6] 2024 Annual Report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate (Jan. 8, 2025), https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/reports/2024-annual-report-to-congress/full-report at 74 (“Due to underinvestment in the IRS and critically low staffing levels over the past decade, taxpayers have faced: prolonged wait times for assistance; delays in processing returns and refunds; reduced access to knowledgeable IRS employees; and inconsistent application of tax laws and increasing errors.”).
[7] FY26 Report to Congress, supra note 4.
[8] White House, supra note 5.
[9] FY26 Report to Congress, supra note 4, at 30.
[10] Jory Heckman, Some IRS Employees Required to Work Longer Under Deferred Resignation Offer, Federal News Network (May 8, 2025), https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/05/some-irs-employees-required-to-work-longer-under-deferred-resignation-offer (“But IRS taxpayer services employees and some call center representatives have been told they must remain on the job through June 30”).
[11] National Taxpayer Advocate Issues Mid-Year Report to Congress, IR-2025-71, Internal Revenue Service (Jun. 25, 2025), https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/national-taxpayer-advocate-issues-mid-year-report-to-congress (“But with the IRS workforce reduced by 26% and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year’s filing season. It is critical that the IRS begin to take steps now to prepare.”).
[12] White House, supra note 5.
[13] TAS is Taking Steps to Better Serve Taxpayers, National Taxpayer Advocate Blog (Sept. 19, 2024), https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/nta-blog/tas-is-taking-steps-to-better-serve-taxpayers/2024/09 (“It takes months, even years, to train newly hired case advocates, because they work cases that involve a wide range of procedural and technical issues, including returns processing, identity theft, audits, collection matters, and Appeals.”).
[14] Id. (“To compound the challenges, we have to temporarily reassign experienced case advocates to provide training and supervision for the new hires, further straining our resources to work current cases.”).
[15] Ellis Chen and Vanessa Williamson, The New Tax Bill Burdens an Already Overburdened IRS, Brookings (Jul. 17, 2025), https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-new-tax-bill-burdens-an-already-overburdened-irs.
[16] FY26 Report to Congress, supra note 4, at 14.