IRS Bets on New App to Do More With Thousands Fewer Employees

A smaller IRS is putting more of the work on taxpayers' phones.

IRS CEO Frank J. Bisignano is calling it a “digital-first agenda.” Critics might call it making do with less.

“The IRS mobile app puts more services at taxpayers’ fingertips and makes it easier to interact with the IRS from a mobile device,” Bisignano said. “This is another step forward in our digital-first agenda and our commitment to making IRS services easier to access and more consistent for taxpayers.”

The personnel cuts give Bisignano fewer people to work with. The IRS workforce is down roughly 30 percent under President Donald Trump's second administration. Those cuts are intentional. Trump has made shrinking the federal bureaucracy a priority. IT took an even bigger hit, losing about 42 percent of its staff.

Bisignano laid out his vision in March.

“We’re not modernizing the IRS. It’s not a word I use,” Bisignano said. “We’re transforming the IRS through advanced technology.”

The IRS started this filing season with roughly 74,000 employees, compared with about 102,000 a year earlier. The National Taxpayer Advocate found longer waits for personal assistance and fewer experienced employees available for complicated problems.

Not having to call the IRS sounds like a win. Whether an app can make up for thousands of people no longer answering those calls is another question.

Users who sign in can view balances and payment history, make payments, check refund and amended-return status, access transcripts and other tax records, read notices and letters, and retrieve an Identity Protection PIN. Taxpayers can also update certain profile information, including email and bank-account information.

IRS2Go users with automatic updates turned on will get the new app through a normal update. Everyone else can download it for free from Apple or Google. IRS.gov remains in place for services that have not moved to mobile.

Security gets more complicated when tax records and payment information move onto a phone.

Bisignano told FOX Business the app is "100%, 100% secure." The IRS, he said, continuously monitors for cyber threats. That's a bold claim for an agency that watchdogs have repeatedly flagged for cybersecurity shortcomings.

The agency has spent years dealing with identity-theft cases. Its backlog climbed to roughly 500,000 cases in 2024 before being reduced by more than half, according to figures discussed by Bisignano. He said processing times for those cases have also improved.

The problem has not disappeared. The National Taxpayer Advocate reported that Identity Theft Victim Assistance cases were still taking an average of about 600 days to close during fiscal year 2026.

The IRS itself is warning taxpayers to make sure they download the legitimate app and to watch for look-alike apps and unsolicited messages pretending to come from the agency. 

The new features also run through ID.me. Taxpayers leave the IRS app for identity verification, then return after signing in. ID.me has faced scrutiny over facial recognition and its handling of taxpayer data.

The app isn't done. The IRS says additional features and services will be added over time, though it has not said which ones or when.

The IRS processed nearly 99 percent of individual returns this filing season. But live assistors answered 20 percent fewer calls than last year, and fully staffed Taxpayer Assistance Centers fell from 102 to 42.

The app can take some work off their hands. It can't pick up the phone.

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