Your tax refund may actually land on time this year. Thank the IRS.

As Americans turn the page on another tax season, the Internal Revenue Service may finally be turning the corner after a mountainous backlog of tax returns, delayed refunds and poor customer service gave people even more reason to loathe the federal agency they love to hate.

Over the past year, the IRS has rebuilt its ranks, answered more than 80% of calls and worked its heap of unprocessed returns down from over 12 million to roughly 2 million, the U.S. Treasury Deported reported this week. Getting help is easier, too. Taxpayers now face an average wait time of four minutes to get an IRS employee on the phone, down from a patience-sapping 28 minutes last year.

"Tax filing season this year has gone much more smoothly than 2020 and 2021," Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told CBS MoneyWatch. "They did get extra money and were able to hire more people to answer the phone. They dug through a pile of paper returns, which was an unimaginable mess. So even with a small amount of money, things are better."