IRS -staff who took Trump -Frefratræden need to work anyway

Oops. It turns out that the Internal Revenue Service cannot work without some of its employees, especially during the tax archive season.

On January 27, 2025, the day after the IRS began through 30 September 2025 (the end of the financial year). Employees had until February 6 to accept the offer of deferred severance program (DRP).

Originally, there was some ambiguity about whether retirement workers should do any work in the next eight months. But the Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was the driving force behind the offer, Commented X.“Take the vacation you’ve always wanted, or just watch movies and chill while receiving your full government salary and benefits.” OPT said too so much in frequently asked questions about the offer.

The original DRP message exempted “military staff for the armed forces, US postal services, those in positions related to immigration enforcement and national security,” as well as “those in other positions specifically excluded by your employment agency.”

Today, a message to IRS staff from the IRS Human Capital Officer announced them in “Specific, Critical Archiving Seasoning” may not participate in the DRP.

The IRS confirmed that specific, critical filing seasonal positions are now exempt from DRP until May 15, 2025. It is unclear who exactly fits these criteria, but the memo notes that it includes them in taxpayers, information technology and taxpayers’ lawyer service. (An invitation to comment on the taxpayer Advocate Service was not immediately returned.)

In a nod to the idea that the exception was a reflection, those who have already accepted the offer and stopped working, but fall within the exception, notified that they would be told when to return to work.

The original letter and the subsequent OPS Guide said that an employee’s decision to take postponed resignation was irrevocable. It is not clear whether IRS employees who offered their resignation, who expected eight months of salary without work, and will now lose three and a half work-free months, can change their opinion.

A request for comment to National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), representing the IRS employees, was not immediately returned. But in one statement to AksiosDoreen Greenwald, the president of the NTEU, said: “Not only is this a clear case of bait-and-switch-they were initially told they would be paid for not working through September 30-but it proves that the conditions For OPS so -called offer is unreliable and cannot trust. “

As of this afternoon, about 40,000 employees across all civilian agencies – had approx. 2% of the workforce – Accepted the DRP offer.

Hiring freezing and solutions of job offerings

The DRP offer followed the heels of a executive order from President Trump freezing employment to most federal agencies. This order expanded a temporary employment of freezing for most federal agencies – except for the IRS. According to the executive order, within 90 days, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must, in consultation with OPM and DOGE, submit a plan to reduce the size of the government’s workforce. Once the plan is submitted, the freezer for all agencies will expire than the IRS. With regard to the tax agency, employment freezing will remain in place until the Secretary of State, in consultation with OMB and DOGE, “decides that it is in the national interest to lift the freezer.”

Shortly after the order, job openings were removed from official sites and candidates with the IRS job offers with a start date after February 8, 2025 (or an unconfirmed start date) found that these job offers had been canceled.

Trump subsequently suggested he could shoot the IRS employees – or send them to the border. “They hired or tried to hire 88,000 workers to go after you, and we are in the process of developing a plan to either end them all, or maybe we move them to the border,” he told a quantity at Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

(What he is referring to is incorrect information that became viral in 2022 and 2023 on IRS financing in the Inflation Reduction Act. However, the extra money was intended to help the IRS hire 87,000 new workers – including customer service and IT workers – over The next decade.

The hiring of Freeze, combined with DRP, raised questions about whether the IRS would be sufficiently staffed to do so through the tax archive season. Now it looks like the answer was no.

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