How Often the IRS Accepts Offers in Compromise

Key numbers

• 5,464offers accepted in FY 2025, the fewest of any year back to FY 1999IRS Data Book, Table 4-1 and all-years files
• 38,797offers received in FY 2025, up 28.6% from FY 2023IRS Data Book, Table 4-1
• 15.6%of offers the IRS closed in FY 2025 were accepted (28.5% in FY 2023)National Taxpayer Advocate, 2025 report, Fig. 1.2.4
• $98.1 milliontotal value of the offers accepted in FY 2025IRS Data Book, Table 4-1

Offers received and accepted, FY 2010 to FY 2025

What the data shows

• Offers are rising again. The IRS received 38,797 offers in FY 2025, up from 33,591 in FY 2024 and 30,163 in FY 2023, the low point of this series (IRS Data Book, Table 4-1).
• Acceptances moved the other way. The IRS accepted 12,711 offers in FY 2023, 7,199 in FY 2024 and 5,464 in FY 2025, a drop of 57.0% in two years (Table 4-1). The FY 2025 count is the fewest of any fiscal year in the Data Book series, which reports accepted offers from FY 1999.
• For most of the period the ratio was much higher. Accepted offers equaled 24.6% of new offers in FY 2010, then about 4 in 10 from FY 2013 through FY 2018 (the highest exact figure was 42.4%, in FY 2016), and again in FY 2023 (42.1%), before falling to 21.4% in FY 2024 and 14.1% in FY 2025 (Table 4-1).
• The National Taxpayer Advocate measures it differently, as accepted offers out of all offers the IRS closed, and reports the same direction: 28.5% in FY 2023, 21.3% in FY 2024 and 15.6% in FY 2025 (2025 Annual Report to Congress, Figure 1.2.4). Its offer counts match the Data Book exactly.
• Accepted offers were worth $98.1 million in total in FY 2025, an average of $17,962 per accepted offer, compared with $9,338 in FY 2010 (Table 4-1, current dollars). This is the amount of the offers, not the amount of tax the IRS gave up.

The data, year by year

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

* ~ The Data Book published FY 2013 to FY 2015 counts only rounded to the nearest thousand, so those ratios (within about one percentage point) and average offers are approximate. Download the table as a CSV: offer-in-compromise-acceptance-fy2010-2025.csv (free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with credit to Global Gate Tax Relief).

What this means if you owe the IRS

• An offer is one option, not the usual outcome. For every accepted offer in FY 2025, the IRS set up about 578 new installment agreements (3,160,047 in total, Table 4-1; the count includes short-term payment agreements). These counts describe the IRS as a whole, not anyone’s odds.
• The IRS says that, absent special circumstances, it will not accept an offer if it believes the balance can be paid in full as a lump sum or through a payment agreement (IRS Data Book, Table 4-1, note 6). Its free Offer in Compromise Pre-Qualifier tool shows whether you may be eligible.
• Every offer application requires a $205 application fee and a first payment unless you meet the low-income qualifications (IRS.gov, page updated October 19, 2026). Check eligibility before you pay.
• Be careful with anyone who promises an offer will be accepted or that you will settle for a tiny fraction of what you owe. No one outside the IRS can promise its decision. See how to spot a tax relief scam.
• A rejected offer can be appealed. The IRS Independent Office of Appeals received 3,124 offer in compromise cases in FY 2025 (IRS Data Book, Table 4-3). Our offer in compromise page explains how an offer works.

Method and limits

We took offers received, offers accepted and the dollar amount of accepted offers for each fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) from IRS Data Book Table 4-1, “Delinquent Collection Activities”, and its earlier editions (Table 27 in 2024, Table 25 in 2019 to 2022, Table 16 through 2018). Each edition reports two years; for each year we used the latest edition that gives an exact count. The counts cover all return types, individual and business.

The ratio is accepted offers divided by offers received in the same year. Offers accepted in one year may have been received in an earlier year, so the ratio is not an acceptance rate and not anyone’s chance of approval. The National Taxpayer Advocate rate shown for FY 2023 to FY 2025 divides accepted offers by all offers the IRS closed, including offers it returned as not processable. Dollar amounts are in current dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

The Data Book does not say why acceptances fell, and we do not guess. The National Taxpayer Advocate recommended in its 2025 report that the IRS start a program to encourage appropriate offers from taxpayers who qualify. For the “fewest since FY 1999” comparison we also used the Data Book’s all-years files for FY 1999 to FY 2009, which give counts rounded to the nearest thousand; the lowest of those years was about 11,000 accepted offers.

Cite this study

Global Gate Tax Relief, “How Often the IRS Accepts Offers in Compromise, FY 2010-2025,” published November 13, 2026, https://globalgatetaxrelief.com/research/offer-in-compromise-acceptance/. Data: IRS Data Book, Table 4-1.

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