By Brian Schwartz, Ashlea Ebeling and Katherine Long
The Internal Revenue Service began to terminate thousands of employees Thursday, disrupting the agency when tax season is in full swing and tens of millions of people are seeking refunds.
A termination memo sent Thursday to IRS employees read: “Your continued employment at the Agency is not in the public interest.” The email said employees would be removed from their positions on Thursday.
The agency is set to lay off at least 6,000 people from its roughly 100,000-strong workforce. Already, the IRS was struggling with recruitment and retention. The layoffs, which are mostly in the compliance division, mean some collections and audits are likely to be paused, and one-on-one personal service is set to be more limited.
“Patience is going to be a virtue,” said Tom O’Saben, director of government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals. Still, most people who file electronically and choose direct deposit aren’t likely to be affected.
The cuts aren’t expected to include workers essential to the filing season. The administration also limited its deferred-resignation program at the IRS, telling workers involved in running the filing season that they couldn’t stop working until May 15. More cuts could come after that date.
IRS employees were asked to come into the office Thursday and hand in government-issued equipment, agency access cards, travel cards and parking permits. Some lost access to their emails and couldn’t receive termination notices, according to a text-message chain that included an IRS official. Some were informed that access was revoked because of an IT issue, and not necessarily related to firings, that person said.
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