The IRS is slowly cutting the time it takes to assist taxpayers who have been victims of tax-related identity theft, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said last week.
In her most recent report to Congress, which was released in early January, Collins noted that in fiscal year 2024, the average time it took the IRS’s Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) unit to resolve identity theft cases and issue refunds to affected victims was nearly two years. She called the delays “unconscionable,” and they impacted nearly half a million taxpayers—worse than the delays seen in FY 2023, when cases took almost 19 months to resolve.
“Tax-related identity theft has been more prevalent, but the IRS’s outdated practices and prioritization of other service areas are contributing factors to the unprecedented delays victims experience,” the report states. “Until the IRS prioritizes providing timely resolution in identity theft cases, it will continue to burden victims with significant delays that have real financial consequences.”

However, Collins shared some good news about the IRS making some progress in a Jan. 29 blog post. For IDTVA cases in accounts management (AM) inventory, the processing cycle time is basically the time it takes for the IRS to receive a taxpayer’s Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, research its validity, and complete all necessary account adjustments, she said.
So far in FY 2025, the IRS is averaging 506 days for IDTVA-AM cases. For reference, Collins noted that in FY 2022, the average processing cycle time for IDTVA cases was 399 days, which rose to an average of 556 days in FY 2023 and then worsened to an average of 676 days in FY 2024.
“It is sad that a decrease to 506 days is good news, but after years of increases, it is positive to see the average IDTVA case processing cycle times going down instead of up,” Collins wrote.
The IRS also has been working through an initiative to reduce its IDTVA inventory backlog of more than 447,000 aged cases, Collins said. According to her blog post, the tax agency prioritized a specific subset of approximately 45,000 IDTVA-AM cases in its backlog from prior to July 13, 2024, that reflect potential refunds for victims. So far in FY 2025, data shows the average processing cycle time for that specific subset of backlogged IDTVA cases is 515 days. Since July 13, 2024, the IRS received 5,500 more IDTVA cases that fit in the same specific subset and is averaging about 100 days to resolve the new cases. The combined average processing cycle time for aged and new cases in this specific subset is about 473 days.
“This is good news for taxpayers with new cases that fit within this specific subset of IDTVA-AM cases. However, this only reduces a small percentage of the backlog,” Collins wrote. “Although a good start towards closure, we continue to urge the IRS to find ways to work through its backlog of cases as quickly as possible so that victims awaiting refunds may finally receive them.”
She added, “With the 2025 filing season upon us, taxpayers should take extra care to prevent identity theft. I strongly encourage taking that ounce of prevention and being overly vigilant to protect your data.”
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