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Washington, D.C.—A report released by the independent advocate inside the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) underscored ongoing taxpayer troubles with customer service and identity theft problems attributable to a lack of adequate funding.

In her mid-year report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson recapped the 2015 filing season stating that, for taxpayers seeking assistance, “the filing season was by far the worst in memory.”

“It is shocking that severe staffing shortages at the IRS resulted in only 37 percent of taxpayer calls being answered and that the number of ‘courtesy disconnects’ skyrocketed to 8.8 million this filing season,” said Colleen M. Kelley, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “It is disgraceful that Congress has allowed the level of service to taxpayers to fall so low. These dramatic declines are a direct result of severe cuts to the IRS budget.”

According to the IRS, funding reductions in recent years have prevented millions of taxpayers from getting help at IRS call centers and taxpayer assistance centers and have significantly delayed IRS responses to taxpayer letters.

Olson also highlighted funding concerns, stating, “There is no doubt that the deficiencies in taxpayer service are substantially attributable to a lack of resources.”

Since 2010, IRS funding has been cut by almost $1.2 billion, or 17 percent after adjusting for inflation. The funding reductions have forced IRS to operate under an exceptions-only hiring freeze, resulting in a workforce decline of 18,000. This lack of staffing has strained the agency’s capacity to combat identity theft and provide adequate customer service. Congress is again proposing significant cuts to the IRS budget for 2016.

The House Appropriations Committee adopted a fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget proposal that would provide the IRS with a budget of $10.1 billion—$838 million less than the current level and $2.8 billion below the administration’s FY16 proposal.

The House proposal’s funding level, in real terms, is smaller than IRS’ budget in FY 1991, when the tax code was far less complicated and the country had 38 million fewer individual taxpayers, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

According to the report, the growing problem of ID theft has created a backlog of cases which can take up to six months to resolve, preventing taxpayers from receiving their refunds in a timely manner.

The NTEU president said far too many taxpayers caught up in identity theft cases experienced significant delays in receiving assistance from the short-staffed IRS.

“The best way to handle the rising incidence of tax-related identity theft is to ensure that the IRS is provided with sufficient resources,” said President Kelley. “The IRS’ ability to combat the growing problem of identity theft is severely challenged due to reduced funding in recent years and the cuts mandated by sequestration.”

NTEU believes the administration’s FY16 request for the IRS would provide critical funding to combat identity theft and refund fraud by paying for additional staffing and advanced technologies to support the IRS’s continued efforts to handle the increased workload associated with identity theft and refund fraud. The proposed $82 million in funding will help the IRS answer calls and adjust accounts for identity theft victims; address the current backlog of identity theft cases and invest in information technology projects that will help protect taxpayer information.

The frustration of taxpayers is mounting as the cash-strapped agency struggles to provide necessary assistance, threatening our voluntary compliance system, Kelley said.

Said Olson, “There is a real risk that the inability of taxpayers to obtain assistance from the government, and their consequent frustration, will lead to less voluntary compliance and more enforced compliance.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.