Taxpayers aren’t usually inclined to sympathize with the Internal Revenue Service, but this year they probably should. Thanks to a brutal combination of staff shortages and new complications in the tax code, the filing season now underway has put extraordinary strain on the agency.

The Biden administration aimed to modernize the IRS and increase its staffing, correctly calculating that better tax enforcement would pay for itself many times over. Soon after the plan was announced, Congress began rolling back the necessary funding — a shift that has since accelerated. In 2025, changes driven by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency cut IRS staffing by more than 25%. By January, the agency had been led by seven different commissioners in the space of 12 months.

© Bloomberg