According to the Journal of Accountancy, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration  (TIGTA) found that IRS overtime rose sharply in 2025, even though the agency’s workforce got approximately 25% smaller.  

TIGTA reported that overtime costs increased by 12% between January and September 2025, going from $198 million in 2024 to $225 million. At the same time, regular work hours fell by 14% as employees left through resignations, retirements, and terminations.  

“We believe that additional overtime costs were needed since the IRS had to balance increasing workforce demands with the impact of Service-wide workforce reductions,” the report stated.  

The Taxpayer Services division made up 82% of all overtime hours in 2025. Contact representatives and tax examiners together worked about 4.3 million overtime hours, even though thousands of jobs in these roles were cut.  

The report also said that key tax processing inventories grew by 33% from December 2024 to December 2025. A 43-day government shutdown made it even harder for the agency to reduce backlogs.  

TIGTA also found 476 questionable overtime claims from about 300 employees. Some employees reported working more than 12 hours in a single day. The report noted that the IRS does not have a central system to track overtime procedures across its business units.