This filing season, which opened Monday, has taken on increased political significance as President Donald Trump has ramped up promises of huge tax refunds, thanks to last year's sweeping "big, beautiful" tax law. Experts said they expected a bigger portion of the agency's staff to continue working in the event of a filing season shutdown. Changes in the Treasury's hiring processes and last year's record shutdown also delayed training of new employees hired specifically for tax filing season. The backlog was 129% higher heading into this filing season compared to before the pandemic, according to the report. The IRS expects 164 million individual tax returns to be filed this year ahead of the April 15 deadline.