Staffing shortages at the Internal Revenue Service has left a backlog of nearly 590,000 amended tax returns – and could result in delays to Americans receiving refunds, according to a recent report.
The IRS workforce has been cut by approximately 27 percent, according to the most recent figures, following layoffs by the Department of Government Efficiency (known as DOGE,) which was overseen by billionaire Elon Musk in the early days of the Trump administration.
The cuts “could result in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds,” according to a watchdog report from the Treasury Department at the end of last month.
Those who file an amended return are most at risk of delayed refund payments, according to an Axios analysis of the report. Amended returns are commonly filed by taxpayers who make errors reporting income, deductions, dependents, credits, tax liability or refund amount, according to the IRS.
Taxpayer refunds were on average, $3,167 last year, according to the IRS.
The Treasury report paints a picture of a department that’s struggling to keep up with its inventory of filed tax returns and consumer correspondence.
The backlog of amended returns is about 20,000 higher now than it was a little over a year ago and roughly four times the backlog in 2019, before the pandemic, the report noted.
The watchdog report also found that the IRS has reduced its telephone customer service goal from 85 percent to 70 percent, so only handling seven out of 10 calls it receives.
The slowdown in returns processing will likely cost the IRS billions. In general, the federal department pays interest on the refund amount if it is issued more than 45 days after the filing deadline.
In 2025, that rule cost the IRS more than $2.6 billion, according to the Treasury report. The interest rate on the IRS pays for late refunds is 7 percent for the first three months of 2026, according to TurboTax.