IRS firings top 6,700 amid tax filing season
The Internal Revenue Service is firing some 6,700 workers, according to published reports from GovExec.com.
Citing multiple employees notified of the plans, the mass layoffs include staff in their probationary periods, some new hires and other long-time federal workers. The employees have been asked to report last Thursday and bring all of their government equipment, identification cards, parking permits and other documents, the report said.
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The layoffs are taking place in every state.
Employees from the IRS Large Business and International Division and its Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics Division were among those who received the notifications to report. The email sent to employees noted the layoffs were occurring as part of an executive order from President Trump to “terminate probationary employees who were not deemed as critical to filing season.”
The firings come in the middle of tax filing season. The agency expects more than 140 million individual tax returns for tax year 2024 to be filed ahead of the Tuesday, April 15 federal deadline.
The IRS has some 84,000 employees. It’s unclear if the firings will delay tax refunds but some of the workers who were laid off audited tax forms and collected arrearages, according to US News and World Report.