Ten Expenses That Even Seniors Can’t Deduct | Listicle
SURVEYS & RESEARCH
Can DOGE and Palantir Fix the IRS with a ‘Mega API’?
And what about data security and privacy?
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is developing a Unified API Layer intended to consolidate access across its fractured legacy systems, a move that could transform the agency—if executed with transparency, speed, and user needs in mind.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
The project gained momentum–and sparked controversy–this year with the Department of Government Efficiency and Palantir Technologies aiming to build a comprehensive API system.
Ellison-Taylor: Small Firms’ Fix for Talent Crisis | Gear Up For Growth
They’re not leaving the firm. They’re leaving you.
Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
Five Million IRS Refunds Delayed by Staff Cuts
Still, better than 21 million in 2022 pandemic.
By CPA Trendlines Research
| 2025 Filing Season by the Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Individual Returns Received | 140.6 million |
| Refunds Issued | 86.1 million |
| Total Refund Dollars | $253 billion |
| Average Refund | $2,942 |
Issuing $49 billion more in refunds than last year, the Internal Revenue Service processed over $253 billion in refunds during the 2025 filing season, with 86.1 million refunds issued and an average check of $2,942, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2026 Objectives Report to Congress.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
In 2022, the IRS faced a substantial backlog, with over 21 million delayed refunds, primarily due to pandemic-related challenges and a surge in paper filings. By 2023, improvements in processing systems and staffing helped reduce the backlog to approximately 1.9 million delayed refunds. However, in 2025, delayed refunds rose again to over 5 million, slowed by headline-making staff cuts and an uptick in identity theft cases requiring additional verification.
IRS Phone Stats Improve—Unless You’re a Tax Pro
What “Priority Service”? Only 61 percent of practitioner calls get through.
IRS Phone Line |
Level of Service |
|---|---|
Accounts Management |
87% |
Practitioner Priority Service |
61% |
Installment Agreement / Balance Due |
35% |
Identity Theft |
29% |
Critical support lines remain overwhelmed.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service reports significant improvements in its phone service, but the gains mask critical shortfalls in other high-demand lines, frustrating taxpayers and practitioners alike.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
Despite improvements in certain areas, such as the Accounts Management lines achieving an 87 percent Level of Service with average wait times dropping to 3 minutes, other critical lines experienced significantly lower service levels. For instance, the Identity Theft line had an LOS of just 29 percent, and the Installment Agreement/Balance Due line stood at 35 percent.
However, performance plummets for other phone lines. The Level of Service on the Identity Theft line was just 29 percent, and on the Installment Agreement/Balance Due line, it was 35 percent.
The Practitioner Priority Service line, heavily used by professionals, managed just 61 percent, well below the standard for acceptable support.
Hannah Munro: Real Reasons Change Fails | Accounting Influencers
From unclear goals to digital missteps, this episode outlines what it takes to transform with confidence.
This was originally published April 19, 2025.
Sponsored by “MAX: Maximize Productivity, Profitability, and Client Retention,” by August J. Aquila – See Today’s Special Offer
Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/Youtube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS.
Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown
Change isn’t slowing down. It’s speeding up. And according to Hannah Munro, that’s precisely why finance professionals can’t afford to treat transformation as a one-time event.
In this episode of Accounting Influencers, Munro—managing director of ITAS Solutions and host of the CFO 4.0 podcast—discusses driving successful change in accounting and finance. She dives into why so many transformation initiatives fail and outlines a smarter path forward for firms looking to adapt, evolve, and thrive.
“The pace of change is accelerating,” Munro explains. “That volatility and uncertainty are forcing finance professionals to elevate their role.”
‘Kryptonite:’ IRS Buried under 8 Million Paper Returns
2025 season leaves 8.2 million unprocessed returns and a backlog of 750,000 correspondence cases.
Return Type |
Scanned by April 18 |
|---|---|
Form 1040 |
~1% |
Form 940 |
~9% |
Form 941 |
~13.5% |
Far behind digital processing goals.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Despite modernization efforts, the IRS is drowning in paper, which the National Taxpayer Advocate calls the agency’s “kryptonite.”
MORE Tax | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
During the 2025 filing season, the IRS scanned fewer than 1 percent of paper-filed Forms 1040, falling drastically short of its Paperless Processing Initiative goals. This continuing reliance on paper adds months to the processing cycle. In addition to return delays, it clogs the system for identity theft resolution, amended returns, and refund claims, each requiring manual review. For tax professionals, the paper problem means longer timelines, more uncertainty, and higher support costs.
Mounting Delays Undermine Public Trust in IRS Refund Process
Get ready for more unhappy clients and tougher conversations.
| Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) Workload | |
|---|---|
| Pending IDTVA Cases | 387,000 |
| Average Resolution Time | 602 days |
| Percent of Affected Taxpayers Below 250% of Federal Poverty Line | 69% |
Pending cases and processing delays stress hundreds of thousands of taxpayers financially.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is taking an average of 20 months to resolve identity theft cases, leaving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers in financial limbo, disproportionately harming low-income households and straining the resources of CPA firms and tax professionals.
MORE Tax | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
For tax professionals, the stakes are high and the immediate need is clear: Set client expectations, document communication with the IRS, and explore hardship cases that might qualify for expedited handling. At the policy level, the delays are fueling calls for funding, automation, and clearer transparency metrics from the IRS.
“Victims entitled to refunds are waiting nearly two years to receive them,” Collins says. “These delays disproportionately affect vulnerable populations dependent on their refunds to meet basic living expenses.”
Ten Ways to Thank a Client | Listicle
Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients
A hobbled agency could have trouble meeting revenue goals and basic taxpayer services.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is reeling from massive Trump Administration staffing cuts, which have left the agency knee-capped with nearly 26,500 fewer employees, raising red flags for tax professionals about service quality, enforcement consistency and case resolution delays.
MORE Tax | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | Quick Tax Tip | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
The IRS has lost 25.9 percent of its workforce since Jan. 25, 2025, with headcount dropping from 102,113 to 75,702 as of June 4, 2025. Most of the cuts come from voluntary separation incentives rather than layoffs, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate 2026 Objectives Report to Congress.
Yet, the result is the same: fewer agents, auditors, and call center staff, just as tax complexity and demand for support are expected to increase.
Intuit Fires Back with Agentic AI after Xero Nabs Melio
In an escalating arms race, the general ledger is the new gateway to advisory.
By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research
Cornerstone Report
Just a day or two after Xero shook the accounting world with its $3 billion acquisition of B2B payments platform Melio, Intuit is launching its strategic salvo: A new suite of generative AI agents built into QuickBooks.
SEE Xero Buys Melio for $3 Billion in Race for ‘The Active GL’ | MORE Tech and Fintech | MORE Artificial Intelligence | MORE Cornerstone Reports, in-depth data-driven analysis and commentary
The agents promise to automate payment reminders, reconcile bank transactions, forecast cash flow, and even draft client emails — all without human intervention.
The initiative is pivotal in the escalating arms race among accounting tech giants to dominate the general ledger. The general ledger is no longer just a recordkeeper in this rapidly transforming space. It’s becoming the operating system for every small business financial decision — and the battleground on which legacy players and startups are staking their futures.
How to Save $15.16 on Every Invoice
Typical U.S. business could cut $1.1 billion in billing costs.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Widespread adoption of e-invoicing across six major economies could generate $616 billion in annual economic gains, according to new research.
MORE Tech and Fintech | MORE Avalara: Experts Call for Industry Overhaul | New Survey of 600+ Main Street Accountants Reveals Steep Drop in Optimism for SMB Clients
U.S. businesses save $15.16 per invoice, totaling $1.1 million in annual productivity per firm. The United States alone could net $116 billion, with small and midsize firms capturing $97 billion, or 83 percent, of that value, says the Avalara and the Centre for Economics and Business Research study.
“E-invoicing isn’t just a compliance solution, it’s a growth engine,” says Ross Tennenbaum, Avalara president.
Ten Topics for Client Newsletters | Listicle