Tax season is about to start. The IRS is still grappling with refund delays, tax advocate says.

Millions of Americans continue to grapple with IRS delays that are preventing them from getting their tax refunds in a timely manner, according to a new report from the National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent watchdog that's part of the IRS. 

The report, published annually to highlight the IRS' most glaring problems, comes after the agency was given billions in new funding through the Inflation Reduction Act to improve its technology and go after wealthy tax cheats. Yet for many taxpayers, dealing with the IRS involves "delays, frustration and unnecessary costs," the taxpayer advocate, Erin M. Collins, wrote in the report. 

Problems highlighted in the report echo issues that bedeviled millions of taxpayers during the pandemic, when the IRS shuttered its offices, causing many returns to get caught in a bottleneck, delaying refunds. While the worst of those issues have since been resolved, Collins noted, the IRS continues to struggle in some areas, such as processing paper returns and dealing with taxpayers who have been victims of identity theft, which can lead to lengthy refund delays.