The short answer is that the IRS moves slowly, and everything in a tax resolution case runs on the IRS’s timeline β not ours. Tax Network USA can prepare, submit, and follow up on your behalf, but we cannot make the IRS move faster. Understanding why that is makes the wait a lot easier to sit with.
Here is what is actually happening.
Before Anyone Can Do Anything, the IRS Has to Say So
When you hire us, the first thing that has to happen is filing a Power of Attorney β IRS Form 2848 β that legally authorizes Tax Network USA to speak with the IRS on your behalf. Until the IRS processes that form, we cannot pull your account transcripts, talk to a revenue officer about your balance, or take any formal action on your case.
That form used to post within five business days. Today it averages around ten, and during busy periods it can take more than 26 days. The IRS processes nearly seven million of these authorization forms every year, and most of the work is still done manually. That waiting period β which can look like nothing is happening β is the IRS’s clock running, not ours.
Once authorization clears, we pull your transcripts, review your full account history, and start building a resolution strategy that actually fits your situation. You can get a better sense of what that process looks like on our How It Works page.
Submitting a Resolution Takes Time Because Getting It Wrong Is Expensive
There is no shortcut to submitting a strong Offer in Compromise or a well-supported payment plan. The IRS reviews your financial picture in detail: your assets, your income, your allowable expenses, your equity in property, and how much time is left on the collection statute. If the documentation is incomplete or the offer does not hold up to scrutiny, the IRS rejects it.
Rejection is common. In the most recent fiscal year, the IRS accepted just 21.4% of all Offers in Compromise submitted β roughly one in five. The work happening while you wait is the preparation that keeps your case out of the rejected majority.
The IRS Investigates Everything Slowly
Once we submit a resolution, the IRS does not move quickly.
For an Offer in Compromise, the IRS’s own published guidance states the investigation “can take up to 24 months, depending on inventory levels and case complexity.” Most offers are decided in seven to twelve months. Complex cases regularly run eighteen months or more. During that time, the IRS is reviewing your financials, potentially requesting additional documentation, and in some cases routing the file to its Office of Chief Counsel for a secondary review. Each documentation request the IRS sends adds more weeks to the clock.
For cases involving a payment plan or penalty abatement, the timeline is shorter β typically a few weeks to a few months after financials are submitted β but it still depends on IRS workload and the stage your account is in.
The IRS Is Also Significantly Understaffed Right Now
This is not just how the IRS has always operated. The situation got materially worse in 2025.
The National Taxpayer Advocate β the independent watchdog inside the IRS β reported that the agency began 2025 with roughly 102,000 employees and finished with approximately 74,000, a reduction of about 26% in a single year. The division responsible for answering phones and processing taxpayer correspondence lost more than 21% of its workforce.
Revenue officers β the IRS employees who actually work collection cases β have been declining for over a decade. Their ranks fell roughly 68% between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2022, from about 5,900 officers to fewer than 1,900.
The result is a system under significant strain. The National Taxpayer Advocate’s most recent Annual Report to Congress found that unassigned collection cases sit in an IRS queue for an average of 4.9 years before a revenue officer is even assigned to them. Accounts can wait nearly five years before a human being at the IRS looks at them.
None of that is within our control. What is within our control is how well your case is prepared when it reaches the front of that line.
A Word on Promises of Fast Resolution
If a tax resolution company tells you it can deliver a fast outcome, that is worth questioning. The IRS does not offer accelerated tracks for firms that apply more pressure or charge higher fees. The timeline is set by the IRS’s internal process, and the only thing that changes based on who represents you is how well your case is built.
What experienced representation actually does is prevent delays on your side of the process: getting documentation right the first time, responding to IRS information requests before they become problems, and making sure your case does not get deprioritized or rejected over a fixable error. That work happens in the background while you wait. You can see what clients who have been through the process have to say on our reviews page.
If You Have Questions About Your Case
If you want to know specifically where your case stands, contact us directly. Our case managers can tell you what stage your case is in, what the IRS has or has not responded to, and what comes next.
The wait is real. So is the work being done on your behalf.
