Original Research
IRS Data & Tax Studies
Updated
Original analysis of public IRS data — audit rates, Offer in Compromise acceptance, liens and levies, penalty relief, and phone wait times. Every figure is sourced to the IRS’s own published statistics.
Journalists and researchers: these studies are free to cite. Each one names its IRS source and includes a ready-to-use attribution line. Questions or a custom data request? Contact us.
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Each study links to the full analysis with the data table, methodology, and source.
| Study | What it covers | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Offer in Compromise Acceptance Rate | How often the IRS accepts OIC settlement offers, and what the numbers really mean for your odds. | Read → |
| Audit Rates by Income | Your real, data-based odds of an IRS audit at each income level. | Read → |
| Tax Lien & Levy Statistics | How many liens and levies the IRS files each year and the trend over time. | Read → |
| IRS Phone Wait Times | How often the IRS actually answers the phone, and how long callers wait. | Read → |
| Math Error Notices | How common IRS math-error notices are, and your 60-day window to push back. | Read → |
| Penalty Abatement Statistics | How much the IRS reduces or removes in penalties each year, and why it’s worth asking. | Read → |
| Back Tax Debt Owed to the IRS | How much Americans collectively owe in back taxes, and how the balance has grown. | Read → |
| Total IRS Collections | The $5.3 trillion the IRS collects each year, and where it comes from. | Read → |
| Notice of Federal Tax Lien Filings | Lien filings by fiscal year: 214,099 in FY2025, up roughly 9% in a year. | Read → |
| Southern California Tax Lien Filings by County | Federal tax liens recorded in Orange and Riverside counties, 2016 to 2026, counted from county records. | Read → |
| IRS Levies Per Year | How many levies the IRS issues annually and the direction of the trend. | Read → |
| Third-Party Levy Notices | 339,137 levies served on banks and employers in FY2025. | Read → |
| Property Seizures | How rarely the IRS actually seizes property, with the real counts. | Read → |
| Installment Agreements | How many taxpayers are on IRS payment plans right now. | Read → |
| IRS Criminal Investigation | Case volumes, conviction rates, and how rare criminal referral really is. | Read → |
| ERC Fraud Investigations | 545 criminal cases worth $5.6 billion, and average sentences of 21 months. | Read → |
| ERC Recapture Letters | The data behind $1 billion in clawed-back Employee Retention Credits. | Read → |
| CP2000 Underreporter Notices | Inside the IRS document-matching machine and how many notices it sends. | Read → |
| Corporate Audit Rate | Large-company audit rates reach 22%, against a falling overall rate. | Read → |
| Audit Odds Over $1 Million | What audit exposure actually looks like at high income levels. | Read → |
| Partnership Audit Rate | How often partnerships are examined, and the enforcement trend. | Read → |
| EITC Audit Rate | Why filers claiming the EITC face disproportionately high audit rates. | Read → |
| Failure-to-Pay Penalties | How many failure-to-pay penalties are assessed, and their total value. | Read → |
| Estimated Tax Penalties | 15.7 million penalties a year, and why the number is surging. | Read → |
| Refund Delays | How long refunds really take when something goes wrong. | Read → |
| Identity Theft Resolution Times | How long the IRS takes to resolve identity-theft cases. | Read → |
Studies summarize publicly available IRS data for general information only and are not tax or legal advice. Clarity Tax Relief is not affiliated with the IRS.
Related: IRS Notice Decoder · OIC Calculator · IRS Help Center.
Frequently asked questions about these IRS data studies
Where does the data in these studies come from?
From published IRS material, such as the IRS Data Book and the IRS's own program pages. Each study names its source so the figure can be checked at the origin rather than taken on trust.
How current are the figures?
They are as current as the IRS publication they came from, which is usually a year or more behind the present. That lag is worth keeping in mind when a study describes enforcement volumes, because the most recent year is often incomplete.
Can I use these numbers to predict what will happen in my case?
No. Aggregate data describes what happened across millions of accounts, and it cannot be read down to an individual account. Eligibility for every IRS program depends on your individual facts and circumstances.
Can I cite or quote these studies?
Yes, with attribution. Where you need the underlying figure rather than our reading of it, cite the IRS source the study names, since that is the authority if the two ever disagree.