The IRS budget

Checked Nov 4, 2026

What Congress gives the IRS to run the tax system, against what it collects. The IRS's annual appropriation was $11.2 billion for fiscal 2026, down from $12.3 billion in each of fiscal 2023 to 2025; the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act added $79.4 billion over several years, of which Congress has since rescinded $53.5 billion. In fiscal 2025 the IRS collected $5.31 trillion in gross receipts at a cost of 36 cents per $100.

A sliver of federal spending

Outlays for fiscal 2026 (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026) from the September Monthly Treasury Statement, by budget function; Medicaid is inside Health. The IRS figure is its Taxpayer Services, Enforcement and Operations Support outlays. Counting the refundable credits and other payments the IRS sends out, IRS net outlays were $281.0 billion. source Public record

What Congress gives the IRS each year

Enacted annual appropriations, not counting the Inflation Reduction Act money or pandemic supplementals. Fiscal 2025 ran on a full-year continuing resolution at the 2024 level. The striped bar is the President's fiscal 2027 request.

From fiscal 2026 the Operations Support account is Technology and Operations Support and also funds what Business Systems Modernization used to.

The Inflation Reduction Act money

Of $79.4 billion given to the IRS in 2022 (section 10301 and the section 13802 energy security money), as of Mar 31, 2026. Spent: TIGTA, $16.5 billion of its IRA funds (64 percent), of $26 billion. source Public record

What the IRS collects

From the IRS Data Book. In fiscal 2025: individual income tax (withheld and payments) $2.94T, employment taxes $1.69T, business income taxes $486.4B, excise taxes $90.6B, estate and trust income tax $74.6B, estate tax $28.1B, gift tax $3.0B.

The IRS workforce

• 7,315 probationary employees were sent termination notices in February and March 2025. source Public record
• 31,273 employees left from January 2025 to January 10, 2026, most through deferred resignation programs. source Public record
• Reduction in force notices went to 294 employees in April 2025 and 1,313 during the fall 2025 shutdown; court orders cancelled both. source Public record

Funding lapses

• Jan 20, 2018 to Jan 22, 2018 Government-wide lapse in appropriations during FY 2018; Public Law 115-120, enacted January 22, 2018, provided pay for employees furloughed in the lapse that began on or about January 20, 2018. source Public record
• Dec 22, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019 Lapse in appropriations for the agencies on the FY 2019 continuing resolution, including the IRS (its Financial Services and General Government bill was not yet enacted); Public Law 116-5, enacted January 25, 2019, covered the period that began on or about December 22, 2018. source Public record
• Oct 1, 2025 to Nov 12, 2025 FY 2026 government shutdown. TIGTA: the IRS was funded for five business days after the lapse and furloughed employees beginning October 8, 2025; employees returned to normal operations on November 13, 2025; about 23,000 of 39,000 staff in key filing season positions were exempted from furlough. Public Law 119-37, enacted November 12, 2025, continued appropriations to January 30, 2026. source Public record
• Jan 31, 2026 to Feb 3, 2026 Lapse in appropriations that began on or about January 31, 2026, after the continuing resolution in Public Law 119-37 expired January 30, 2026; Public Law 119-75 (which enacted the IRS's FY 2026 appropriation) was enacted February 3, 2026 and treats the period as covered. No primary source read here describes the effect on IRS operations. source Public record

Not confirmed: IRS-stated totals for FY 2015 to FY 2018 and FY 2022 were not read: the FY 2016 to FY 2020 and FY 2023 and FY 2024 budget justifications were not fetched (the FY 2023 and FY 2024 addresses guessed on home.treasury.gov returned 404). Totals for those years are the sum of the accounts in the law. Account amounts by year are as the appropriations acts state them; the IRS budget justifications show operating plan amounts that differ by account because of transfers (FY 2019, FY 2020, FY 2021, FY 2023, FY 2024, FY 2025). Only the transfers the justifications describe are noted. FY 2024 operating plan account amounts differ from the act by about $477 million into Taxpayer Services; the FY 2026 justification table does not say why. A source explaining the FY 2024 transfer was not found. Effect on the IRS of the January 31 to February 3, 2026 lapse was not confirmed from an IRS, TIGTA or GAO source. Lapse plans and furlough counts for the January 2018 and December 2018 to January 2019 lapses were not read (only the laws). CRS report RS20348 (federal funding gaps) at crsreports.congress.gov returned HTTP 403 to curl; not used. Federal outlays: the Monthly Treasury Statement PDFs at fiscal.treasury.gov now redirect to a landing page; figures were read from the Treasury Fiscal Data public API (no key or session needed) and saved as JSON. FY 2026 figures are from the September 2026 statement. The FY 2026 and FY 2027 request totals are the same figure ($9,831,368 thousand) in both justifications; this is as the sources state it. Enforcement revenue: no FY2015 to FY2025 IRS Data Book reports an enforcement revenue figure (only a narrative mention in the FY2019 Data Book letter). The Data Book's collection-activity table (for example 'Net total amount collected' from unpaid assessments, $73,141,202 thousand in FY2025) is a different measure and was not recorded. enforcementRevenue left null. IRA unobligated balance on a recent actual date: not stated in any primary source read. TIGTA gives spending ($16.5 billion as of March 31, 2026) against $26 billion; the IRS FY 2027 CJ gives actual obligations through FY2025 and a projected $1.087 billion remaining after FY2027. TIGTA 'spent' versus IRS 'obligations': TIGTA calls its figures expenditures from the Integrated Financial System; the CJ's actual obligations through FY2025 ($15,744,553 thousand) match TIGTA's $15.7 billion 'spent' as of September 30, 2025. Whether TIGTA's figures are obligations or outlays is not stated. Release date of the IRS FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification: the PDF is undated (file metadata shows April 3, 2026). Part A may have it. GAO-26-108116 (2025 Tax Filing: Management of Agency Reforms and Workforce Planning) could not be read: gao.gov returned 403 to curl. Its workforce figures are not used. Data Book employee counts: FY2015 to FY2020 are 'number of employees at end of fiscal year'; FY2021 on are 'number of employees in pay status as of September 30'. Both exclude employees on permanent appointments with schedules under 80 hours per pay period in the permanent line, but the IRS total includes the 'Other' line. FTE figures come from the FY2025 Data Book's 30-year table and may differ from FTE in earlier Data Books (they match for every year checked). FY2025 Data Book (p55b.pdf at irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf) is the current edition URL and will move to irs-prior when the FY2026 edition is published.