IRS furloughs almost half its workers as filing deadline nears

The IRS placed 34,000 employees — nearly half of its workforce — on furlough as the federal government shutdown continues. Just under 40,000 workers remain on the job, and CNBC reports that most IRS operations are now closed.

The furloughs took effect Wednesday, a week before the Oct. 15 filing deadline for taxpayers who received extensions on their 2024 taxes. With so many workers sent home, it is not clear what will happen with those tax forms, not to mention payments or refunds.

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The IRS workforce has been cut from about 100,000 to about 74,000 this year. About half the remaining employees have been furloughed during the government shutdown.

“Tax returns will be arriving, but there will be no one there to process them,” Maria Ramos, president of the National Treasury Employees Union’s Austin, Texas, chapter, told CNN.

Taxpayers can expect longer hold times on phone lines, more dropped calls and delays in processing payments and refunds, said Gibson Jones, president of the union’s Memphis chapter. 

Shannon Ellis, president of the union’s Kansas City chapter, said the furlough announcement caused confusion because the furloughed employees had been considered essential during previous government shutdowns. 

Ellis and other union leaders said the IRS has not explained how it decided who is essential and who is not.

Memo to employees

In a memo to all employees, David Traynor, the acting human capital officer at the IRS, wrote that furloughed workers would be in “ non-pay, non-duty status.” 

He instructed them to remain away from their workplace and said they are  prohibited by law from working, even voluntarily.

Other recent cuts to the IRS 

The furloughs come at a time when the Trump administration has been paring down the IRS workforce. The agency started 2025 with about 100,000 employees and is now at about 74,000 workers. 

“We were already short-staffed after months of resignations and layoffs,” Ellis said. “Now this.”

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