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Washington, D.C.—As the April 15 tax-filing deadline approaches, frustrated taxpayers are encountering long lines and impossible wait times on phones when seeking assistance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Overworked and overwhelmed, a smaller IRS workforce is unable to provide adequate service to the millions of taxpayers calling or visiting a Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC), a problem that can no longer go unaddressed, said the head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

“Congress created this problem and Congress can fix it by giving the IRS the resources it needs to accomplish its mission,” NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley said. “Budget cuts for five years—and a resulting hiring freeze—are taking a toll. Taxpayers are suffering and the economy is hurting as a result of these ill-advised cuts. That is the resounding lesson of the 2015 tax-filing season.”

This year, IRS employees have been able to answer fewer than 40 percent of the taxpayer calls it receives. Wait times are longer than ever before at TACs and getting longer. In a recent speech, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen acknowledged that his agency is providing an “abysmal” level of taxpayer service this year and blamed budget cuts.

Meanwhile, the number of taxpayers keeps growing. Seven million new filers will be added in a six-year period ending Sept. 30. The IRS processes about 150 million returns a year. Call volume is also on the rise; the IRS gets about 100 million calls annually.

Congress has cut the IRS budget by a total of $1.2 billion since fiscal year (FY) 2011.

The IRS reports that it is now at its lowest level of funding since 2008. When adjusted for inflation, the IRS budget is comparable to the funding it got in 1998.

“It is time to stop punishing taxpayers for previous events,” President Kelley said. “The services the IRS provides and the revenue it collects are crucial to ensuring a strong and vibrant American economy.”

The number of IRS employees assigned to answer taxpayer telephone calls fell from 9,400 in FY 2010 to 6,900 in FY 2014—a 26 percent decline. Overall, the IRS has lost more than 18,000 full- and part-time employees since 2011—and could lose thousands more through attrition this year.

Meanwhile, the IRS struggles to combat tax-related identity theft, a growing problem. This is a crime under which criminals use stolen identities to file fake returns and steal refunds owed to honest taxpayers

Though the IRS is making progress in cracking down on ID theft, the agency’s enforcement division is hampered from doing more because of personnel shortages, the NTEU leader said.

The IRS prevented $24 billion worth of refunds from being handed out to ID theft criminals in 2013. Nevertheless, the agency still sent out $6 billion in refunds to 1 million fraudulently-filed returns that year, according to Government Accountability Office.

In January, IRS Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson said the IRS was forced to divert 3,000 employees in 2014 to work on ID theft, putting a strain on other IRS programs and services. These are not simple crimes; the IRS says ID theft cases can take about 120 days to resolve.

“Criminals are growing more sophisticated and are more technologically savvy. Congress must help the IRS go on the offensive. Cutting its budget only weakens the agency’s response because it cannot invest in personnel or training, and leaves taxpayers out in the cold,” Kelley said.

NTEU supports the administration’s FY 2016 budget request to Congress, which proposes $12.9 billion for the IRS, an increase of more than $1.9 billion from the current level. Under that proposal, IRS taxpayer services would receive $252 million more in fiscal 2016 than this year and the agency’s enforcement division’s budget would go up by $539 million from this year.

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