The IRS Delivered a Smooth Filing Season Again This Year, Says IRS

Posted on by Going Concern News Desk
IRS building exterior

Yesterday morning, with hours left to go until the official end of tax season 2026, IRS CEO Frank J. Bisignano gave a report to the Senate Finance Committee. In his written statement, he says it went great all things considered. Those things being a reduced workforce with a bunch of IT people shuffled into taxpayer services roles, no Direct File, significant new rules brought on by the One Big Beautiful Bill, and the total eradication of paper checks. Did we miss any?

Anyway, here’s what he had to say:

The IRS worked for months to ensure the agency and taxpayers were ready for the 2026 tax filing season. We estimate that more than 140 million individual tax returns for tax year 2025 will have been filed by the tax deadline.

The annual filing season is the IRS’s most visible operational mission. Success depends on providing taxpayers and tax professionals with accessible filing options, a modern digital experience, secure and timely processing, and responsive assistance when help is needed. I am pleased to report the filing season opened successfully on January 26 and has run smoothly in terms of return processing and the performance of our IT systems. To give you an idea of how well our systems have performed: at the peak on that first day, our systems enabled us to successfully receive 1,200 submissions per second and send 600 acknowledgements per second.

As noted above, the IRS workforce navigated preparation for the 2026 filing season while implementing major tax changes in the WFTC [The Working Families Tax Cuts] designed to help working families across America. This situation challenged our ability to make the necessary annual changes for the filing season. Nonetheless, as a result of the ongoing efforts of our employees, the IRS has delivered a smooth filing season again this year.

Anecdotally, we did see fewer complaints about the IRS itself coming from tax pros on Xitter this year. That could be because they were too busy complaining about the increased numbers of insane, entitled, and otherwise difficult clients.

VITA, or more specifically the volunteers who power it, also put in a helluva lot of work this year. Those of you who gave your time and expertise this year deserve a hearty pat on the back for your service.

Expanding access to filing and payments options increases voluntary compliance and reduces burden on taxpayers, particularly those with low and moderate incomes. Multiple free and low-cost options to file such as the IRS Free File program, which have an almost 3% increase over prior year, or our VITA program which has filed over 2M returns through March 2026. IRS is working with tax industry to provide a wholistic count of total free returns, such as last year the combined efforts of industry and IRS resulted in 30M free returns.

Feel free to share your Tax Season 2026 highs and lows in the comments if you’re so inclined.

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Apparently This Is the IRS Being Funny About Taxes

We can’t come up with a better explanation for their Tax Quotes page. Treasury regulations forbid the IRS from implying that inclusion of a quote here means they are at all endorsing tax revolt and/or humor in any form.

“Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Justice

“I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is – I could be just as proud for half the money.” — Arthur Godfrey, entertainer

“People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women.” — Unknown

“No government can exist without taxation. This money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.” — Frederick the Great, 18th Century Prussian king

“Like mothers, taxes are often misunderstood, but seldom forgotten.” — Lord Bramwell, 19th Century English jurist

“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.” — Arthur C. Clarke, author

“Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.” — F. J. Raymond, humorist

A tax loophole is “something that benefits the other guy. If it benefits you, it is tax reform.” — Russell B. Long, U.S. Senator

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” — Albert Einstein, physicist

“Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.” — Gerald Barzan, humorist

“Income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf.” — Will Rogers, humorist

The IRS Is Taking Your Personal Information Seriously, Starting NOW.

Thumbnail image for IRS_logo-thumb-150x140.jpgSometimes we wonder if the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) ever gets tired of telling the IRS that they are doing a lousy job at pretty much everything.
The latest finger wagging from the TIGTA in the Services’ direction has to do with following protocols for processing taxpayer requests for tax returns or transcripts:

Forty-three percent of taxpayer requests for copies of tax returns or transcripts were processed incorrectly or not in accordance with IRS guidelines…
The errors occurred because IRS employees did not always follow guidelines, or because the guidelines were unclear, inconsistent or insufficient in protecting taxpayer information. Existing guidelines allow IRS employees to process taxpayer requests for tax returns or transcripts without an accurate or complete Social Security number and to send copies of returns and transcripts to an address other than that provided to the IRS on tax returns.

Jesus, that’s reassuring. Naturally, the TIGTA is concerned about the American Taxpayer:

“Taxpayers have a right to expect that the IRS will take every measure to protect their tax return information from inappropriate disclosure,” said TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George in a statement. “The protection of personally identifiable information is a responsibility that the IRS must take more seriously.”

First: judging by the IRS’ track record, they really don’t take anything too seriously, except, perhaps, anything to do with UBS.
Second: Taxpayers have rights? Since when? We’ve been bailing out banks and car companies and you’re concerned about our right to have our tax return information protected? That’s rich. We’ve all been violated to the point of numbness, J. Russell George. Next time, we’d prefer if you said, “The American Taxpayer can expect more of less from the IRS for the foreseeable future. We are in a constant quagmire over here. Please bear with us.”
Honesty. Consider it.
Tax Return Transcripts Expose Personal Information [Web CPA]

IRS Sticks It to Amateur Tax Preparers

Thumbnail image for shulman.jpgAny tax preparers out there that got their stripes by virtue of an 8 hour course in the basement of a church will have to start hitting the books. Today, the IRS announced that it is putting a stop to all the amateur 1040 jockeys out there by issuing new requirements for all paid tax preparers.

The new requirements came after complaints from taxpayer rights’ groups who wanted stronger oversight over the industry. Apparently there are too many “tax professionals” that can’t tell the difference between a W-2 and a sack of doorknobs.

WSJ:

[S]tarting in 2011, all paid tax preparers will have to register with the IRS and include a unique identification number on any returns they prepare. Preparers will be given three years to pass a competency exam in either individual or small business taxation.

Attorneys, certified public accountants and enrolled agents will not be required to pass the competency tests. They will remain subject to the requirements of their respective licensing bodies.

But the exams and new annual, continuing education requirements will impact likely hundreds of thousands of preparers, from employees of chain preparation firms like H&R Block Inc. and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. to mom-and-pop storefronts that offer tax preparation as one of several services.

Three years to pass an exam? Even the dimmest of CPA Exam candidates manage to finish in 18 months. Also, we’re curious as to what diabolical plot the H&R Blocks and Jackson Hewitts of the world will devise in order to speed their professionals into compliance.

Regardless of the shortfalls, Doug “Don’t expect me to apologize” Shulman said that the new requirements were ‘long overdue’. He also said that the Service will be forming a task force to look into determining the accuracy of tax prep software for possible future standards over that industry.

One thing is for sure, somewhere Doug’s boss is asking his friends if they know any good CPAs.

IRS to Boost Oversight of Paid Tax Preparers [WSJ]

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