IRS chief tells receptive Republicans, doubting Democrats that tech spurred ‘most successful filing season’ ever

IRS CEO Frank Bisignano took a Tax Day victory lap Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee, telling credulous Republicans and highly skeptical Democrats that the “most successful filing season” in agency history was made possible by technology investments.

Bisignano, who is still pulling double duty as the non-Senate-confirmed IRS chief and the head of the Social Security Administration, repeatedly touted the tax agency’s work on his watch to leverage “advanced technology” while empowering the workforce “with better tools.” 

The former fintech payments executive acknowledged that 25% of IRS staff took voluntary retirement packages. But he claimed that the significant loss in staff — which has alarmed watchdogs and taxpayer advocates — has had no negative impact on agency operations. 

“Do you feel you’re understaffed at this point in time?” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked. “Or are you gonna be able to get by and do a better job with less?”

“The numbers are showing that,” Bisignano replied. “And that’s why I think, the scoreboard, you know, we’re getting refunds out — 98 million of them within 21 days.” He also said the IRS plans to launch a leadership academy to “teach to the next levels of management on … how you can have less people and better results.”

According to Bisignano, the IRS’s online inquiries were up 60% this filing season, the website’s “where’s my refund?” page was the “No. 1-used function,” and the agency is continuing to upgrade legacy systems, which he said would help it “collect more revenue.” 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed Bisignano on how a 19% staff reduction to the IRS’s large business and international division affected audits under that unit’s purview. Bisignano’s response, unsurprisingly, was that tech has made up the difference.

“I think our head of enforcement would say, and [what] our head of [criminal investigation] would say, is their ability to use technology is completely guiding them, reaching out to more, not less,” said Bisignano, who later told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that “technology and innovation” and “data analytics” have led to a 12% jump in enforcement revenue.

A report published Wednesday by Reuters, however, disputed those results. According to data obtained by the media outlet through the Freedom of Information Act, the IRS has seen a 5% decline in revenue collected through enforcement actions. Reuters said the data showed an administration that had “dramatically reduced efforts to pursue tax cheats in 2025.” 

Some Democrats, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., asked Bisignano for more concrete data behind his various claims.

“You’re focused on delivering measurable results across the IRS. I appreciate that you come from the private sector. You’re all about measuring metrics and outcomes, and I think that’s great,” she said. “My question is, as you’re measuring these metrics, can you provide us more information on how you are measuring them?”

“Sure,” Bisignano said. “My pleasure.”

Data dives at IRS, SSA

Aside from Tax Day-related questions, Senate Finance Democrats used Wednesday’s hearing to push for answers on the IRS’s data-sharing agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a Social Security Administration whistleblower complaint about DOGE uploading Americans’ data to a “vulnerable” cloud server. 

Bisignano mostly sidestepped questions about the tax agency’s memorandum of understanding with ICE, citing ongoing litigation regarding the legality of that agreement. 

“I have been warning for a year that this would lead to serious mistakes and a violation of taxpayer privacy laws,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the committee’s ranking member. “That is exactly what’s come to pass. There is a strong likelihood that this system misidentified taxpayers and sent ICE to hunt down innocent people who may now be sitting in camps or worse.”

Cortez Masto noted that a federal judge ruled that the IRS broke the law more than 42,000 times by sharing some taxpayer information with ICE. And the SSA whistleblower report, from the agency’s former chief data officer, alleged that a DOGE staffer took databases with him on a thumb drive.

“If you go through our priorities, it’s protecting Americans’ data, it’s driving higher service and improving collections for IRS, right?” Bisignano said. “And we brought in outside to look at it, to ensure that we weren’t just looking at it internally, and to ensure that we’re protecting the data, a total outside review of it.”

Bisignano confirmed that SSA’s inspector general is investigating the allegations against DOGE. He told Whitehouse that “we don’t see any data that left the house.”