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In our newest reports, we found that the IRS continues to improve the process it uses to flag tax returns for signs of potential identity theft and that IRS employees worked 600,000 more overtime hours in 2025 than they did in 2024.
The IRS Continues to Improve the Detection and Prevention of Individual Identity Theft
Why did we do this report?
Individuals continue to be victims of tax-related identity theft, impacting their ability to file a tax return or receive a refund. Tax-related identity theft occurs when someone uses another individual’s identifying information, most often a Social Security Number, to file a fraudulent tax return.
What did we find?
In Calendar Years 2024 and 2025, the IRS selected approximately 7.5 million tax returns through its identity theft filters. The IRS adjusts its identity theft filters to address emerging fraud schemes and risks. The IRS also reviews tax return selections and revises filters to minimize selections of legitimate tax returns and reduce burden on these taxpayers. For example, the IRS reduced selections of legitimate tax returns from 55 percent in Processing Year 2023 to 52 percent in PY 2024.
The IRS must balance its fraud detection efforts against the burden they may cause taxpayers. To lessen the burden on taxpayers, the IRS resolves and releases selected tax returns without contacting the taxpayer. For example, the IRS resolved 955,000 selections from the identity theft filters in Calendar Years 2024 and 2025 (as of November 2025) without issuing a notice to the impacted taxpayer. For PYs 2023 and 2024 tax returns that required taxpayer authentication, the IRS posted the tax returns within 13 days on average once the taxpayer authenticated.
The IRS stopped $9.2 million in refunds associated with confirmed identity theft returns and identified an additional $49.3 million in refunds associated with potential identity theft returns because of external alerts received during Fiscal Year 2024. The IRS estimates that external partnerships have contributed to almost $277.7 million in protected revenue since 2017.
Snapshot Report: IRS Use of Overtime in 2024 and 2025
Why did we do this report?
In July 2025, we reported that IRS workforce reduction efforts resulted in an approximate 25 percent decrease in its employees. Additionally, in January 2026, we reported that inventory levels in key return processing programs increased by approximately 33 percent from December 2024 through December 2025 due to staff reductions and the government shutdown. Due to inventory volumes, the IRS has required employees in certain divisions to work weekend overtime. This review provides an overview of the IRS’s use of overtime, comparing the period of January through September for Calendar Years (CY) 2024 and 2025.
What did we find?
The number of overtime hours worked by IRS employees increased 12 percent. We estimate that salary expenses associated with this overtime increased by approximately $27 million. The IRS spent $198 million during the period of January through September 2024 compared to $225 million during the same period in 2025.
Between 2024 and 2025, Overtime Hours Worked Increased
 According to IRS timekeeping records, regular work hours decreased by approximately 14 percent from 2024 to 2025 as employees were terminated, retired, or took the deferred resignation programs and were placed on administrative leave. Because of staff reductions and the government shutdown, IRS inventory in key tax processing programs increased from 1.5 million to 2 million (33 percent) from December 2024 through December 2025.
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