TAX SEASON

Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients

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A hobbled agency could have trouble meeting revenue goals and basic taxpayer services.

Taxpayer Advocate Collins: “Significant challenges.”

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MORE Tax | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | Quick Tax Tip | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax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.

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What Other Tax Pros Want to Know About You

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Group of businesspeople hiding their faces behind question mark signs at office

What our Busy Season Barometer didn’t ask (but should have).

By CPA Trendlines Research

The annual CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer is one of the most widely researched and respected surveys of trends at accounting firms across the nation.

MORE Barometer: Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Your Colleagues Give Their Best Advice for Clients | Pro Services, Tech and Mining Sectors Most Likely to Thrive | Accountants See a Host of Woes for Businesses | Top Three Issues for Business: Tariffs, Taxes and Inflation | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Concerns Take Curious Shifts as Tax Season Closes | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos | Accountants Turn Negative Amid Tariffs, Trade, Uncertainty | What CPA Firms Could Do Better | SURVEY: Which Client Industries Will Grow This Year | Tax Preparers Share Advice for Your Clients | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns | Tax Pros Gear Up for a Better Busy Season | Tax Season 2025 Begins. Ready or Not.
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As you know if you’re one of the hundreds of Barometer respondents, the survey looks for a wide range of hard data and subjective opinions. Among them:

  • How firms are handling the current tax season
  • What their chief concerns are
  • Success metrics on client lists, revenues, profits and extensions

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Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing

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blue pencil marking survey

How does your practice compare?

By CPA Trendlines Research

The 2025 CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer survey has been gathering data from hundreds of accountants and tax practitioners across the country. Here are some of the stats on who’s responding and how they’re doing this year.

MORE Barometer: Your Colleagues Give Their Best Advice for Clients | Pro Services, Tech and Mining Sectors Most Likely to Thrive | Accountants See a Host of Woes for Businesses | Top Three Issues for Business: Tariffs, Taxes and Inflation | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Concerns Take Curious Shifts as Tax Season Closes | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos | Accountants Turn Negative Amid Tariffs, Trade, Uncertainty | What CPA Firms Could Do Better | SURVEY: Which Client Industries Will Grow This Year | Tax Preparers Share Advice for Your Clients | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns | Tax Pros Gear Up for a Better Busy Season | Tax Season 2025 Begins. Ready or Not.
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Small firms prevail.

  • 24 percent are sole practitioners.
  • 42 percent have 2-10 people in the firm.
  • 17 percent have 11-25 people.

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Your Colleagues Give Their Best Advice for Clients

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woman and man walking and talking outside office building

… and lots of it.

By CPA Trendlines Research

For many people, especially people running small businesses, their accountant is their best, if not sole, source of advice on financial matters, including business administration.

Sometimes they come asking for it.

MORE Barometer: Pro Services, Tech and Mining Sectors Most Likely to Thrive | Accountants See a Host of Woes for Businesses | Top Three Issues for Business: Tariffs, Taxes and Inflation | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Concerns Take Curious Shifts as Tax Season Closes | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos | Accountants Turn Negative Amid Tariffs, Trade, Uncertainty | What CPA Firms Could Do Better | SURVEY: Which Client Industries Will Grow This Year | Tax Preparers Share Advice for Your Clients | Staffing, Tech, Prices Top Tax Pros’ Concerns
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

 

Sometimes they expect their accountant to offer it.

Sometimes they are even willing to pay for it.
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