The IRS leaned on senior employees during ‘critical staffing shortages’

It’s giving “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

IRS CEO Frank Bisignano told senators that 2026 was the “most successful filing season in IRS history” and proved the agency could have “less people and better results” after shedding more than a quarter of its workforce last year.

Contributing to that successful filing season were nearly 1,200 employees the agency involuntarily reassigned to taxpayer-services duties to help address “critical staffing shortages and potential filing season backlogs,” a new TIGTA report details.

According to the report, the IRS put those employees on detail “as contact representatives or managers” until June 13, though the agency extended most reassignments another 120 days. While temporarily working those jobs, the employees kept their original positions with the same pay and benefits, TIGTA added.

Pay discrepancy. IRS leadership stressed to lawmakers this spring that their initiatives were working. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in April credited “new leadership” and a “digital-first taxpayer experience” for a successful 2026.

To be sure, the agency reduced service-call idle time by nearly half this year compared to the 2025 season, and kept answer speeds “below 10 minutes” on average. That’s according to Bisignano’s April 15 written testimony to the Senate Finance Committee, in which Bisignano also noted the IRS cut $2 billion from its IT budget “without any operational disruptions.”

But most of the reassigned IRS employees earned significantly higher salaries than the pay scales of the work they performed. According to the TIGTA report, 54.5% of the 1,200 employees on detail were paid between grade levels 13 and 15.

“Positions at these grade levels often include senior, supervisory, and highly specialized technical employees,” TIGTA noted. The positions they were temporarily filling typically pay between grade levels five and nine.

Clearer picture. The TIGTA report also provided updated numbers to the agency’s workforce reduction efforts last year.

The IRS went from approximately 103,000 employees in January 2025 to 74,000 employees this past January. It turfed out about 31,000 workers and hired around 2,000 people, resulting in a net 28% decrease.

The six business units that lost the highest percentage of their employees were small business/self employed, tax exempt and government entities, human capital office, IT, large business and international, and taxpayer services.