The US National Taxpayer Advocate released her Fiscal Year 2027 Objectives Report to Congress on 24 June 2026, highlighting a successful 2026 filing season in which the IRS processed nearly 139 million individual returns and issued more than 90 million refunds, while outlining 11 priority advocacy objectives for the upcoming year.
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins has released her Fiscal Year 2027 Objectives Report to Congress on 24 June 2026, highlighting a largely successful 2026 filing season in which the IRS processed nearly 139 million individual tax returns, issued more than 90 million refunds, and successfully implemented extensive tax law changes despite significant operational challenges.
The report also identifies areas where taxpayers experienced refund delays and service challenges, including returns suspended during processing for additional review, delays in receiving paper refund checks, and prolonged case resolution times for victims of identity theft, while outlining the Advocate’s priority recommendations as the IRS continues to modernise its technology systems.
“Entering the 2026 filing season, there was considerable uncertainty about the IRS’s ability to successfully manage a convergence of major challenges: implementation of sweeping new tax legislation, significant workforce reductions, and extensive leadership turnover,” Collins writes. “In the end, the IRS performed better than expected in most respects. The vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay. [But] taxpayers who required assistance from the IRS often struggled to get it.”
TAS is an independent organisation within the IRS that helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS, makes administrative and legislative recommendations to prevent or correct problems and protects taxpayer rights.
Taxpayer Advocate Service advocacy objectives for FY 2027
The report identifies TAS’s key advocacy objectives for the upcoming fiscal year, as the law requires. The report sets out 11 such objectives:
- Protect taxpayer rights to refunds if a recent US Court of Federal Claims decision is affirmed on appeal in the case of Kwong v. United States, where the court held that filing and payment deadlines were suspended during the 3-1/2 year COVID-19 disaster period and therefore that the IRS should not have assessed penalties for late tax filings and payments (for more information on this issue, see four recent National Taxpayer Advocate blogs);
- Substantially reduce delays in resolving the cases of identity theft victims;
- Reduce burden and delays for taxpayers who are unable to receive their refunds via direct deposit and require paper checks;
- Make it easier for taxpayers to comply with digital asset reporting requirements;
- Improve the clarity of math error notices and abatement procedures, as required by Public Law No. 119-39, the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, a 2025 law based on a prior National Taxpayer Advocate legislative recommendation;
- Improve the process for extending the refund statute of limitations when a taxpayer is waiting for the IRS to decide on a request for reconsideration or an appeal of an adverse audit determination;
- Improve online Tax Pro accounts to make it easier for practitioners to communicate with the IRS, and thereby reduce taxpayer burden and costs;
- Reduce refund delays and improve communication when the IRS suspends a tax return during processing, temporarily freezing delivery of the requested refund;
- Ensure tax penalties are fairly and consistently applied, taking into account that millions of penalties the IRS assesses each year are later abated upon taxpayer request;
- Improve the process by which the IRS records taxpayer power-of-attorney designations, so designated practitioners can begin to represent taxpayers before the IRS without unreasonable delays; and
- Reduce delays in the processing of tax returns filed by or on behalf of deceased taxpayers, so families may obtain closure without unreasonable delays.
The IRS has agreed to implement most administrative recommendations proposed in the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2025 Annual Report to Congress
The National Taxpayer Advocate is required by law to submit a year-end report to Congress that, among other things, makes administrative recommendations to resolve taxpayer problems. Internal Revenue Code § 7803(c)(3) authorises the National Taxpayer Advocate to submit the administrative recommendations to the Commissioner and requires the IRS to respond within 3 months.
The National Taxpayer Advocate made 64 administrative recommendations in her 2025 year-end report and then submitted them for response. The IRS has agreed to implement 47 (or 73%) of the recommendations in full or in part.
