The IRS, confronted with important staffing shortages, is reassigning back-office staff to cowl frontline work throughout this yr’s submitting season.
In accordance with IRS staff accustomed to these choices, employees from human sources and probably the company’s IT division will perform the work of customer support representatives and tax examiners, who overview the accuracy of incoming tax returns.
Staff reassigned to frontline submitting season work have been instructed to inform their coworkers that they are going to be on element via the summer time, “due to an alternate assignment in direct support of the IRS mission.”
IRS staff mentioned the company is seeking to element as much as 1,400 IRS non-bargaining unit staff to volunteer for frontline submitting season work. If the IRS doesn’t get that many volunteers, some staff could also be “volun-told” to simply accept reassignment.
GovExec first reported on the IRS reassignments on Wednesday.
The IRS misplaced 27% of its workforce largely via voluntary separation incentives final yr, in accordance with the Nationwide Taxpayer Advocate, and the company fell wanting a number of hiring targets for this yr’s submitting season.
An IRS HR worker mentioned the company is asking colleagues to take voluntary downgrades to “revenue-generating positions,” together with income brokers, income officers, compliance officers, tax examiners and customer support representatives.
“The only thing that has motivated the few that have taken it so far is the fear of another reduction in force,” the HR worker mentioned.
IRS staff have been advised final summer time that layoffs have been off the desk. However throughout final yr’s 43-day authorities shutdown, the Treasury Division despatched RIF notices to almost 1,400 IRS staff.
Most staff who obtained RIF notices labored in HR or IT. Treasury rescinded these RIF notices, and businesses are barred from issuing new layoff notices via Feb. 13, as a part of the current spending deal handed by Congress.
One other IRS worker mentioned the IRS is planning to ship HR and IT staff to cowl frontline submitting season work with “little to no training.”
IRS Chief Government Officer Frank Bisignano, who additionally serves as the top of the Social Safety Administration, introduced a shakeup of the company’s high ranks every week earlier than the beginning of this yr’s submitting season.
“We know that the CEO has been preaching that filing season needs to go off without a hitch. It is obvious that some cracks are emerging,” the worker mentioned.
The IRS is shifting HR staff away from their normal work, however employees who retired from the company final yr are ready months to obtain a payout of their unused annual depart, or their first annuity fee.
High Democrats on the Home Methods and Means Committee raised these issues to Performing IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent in a Feb. 3 letter. Tax Notes reported final month that the IRS confronted a backlog of seven,300 retirement functions on the finish of 2025.
“This is just another example of the aftereffects of the Fork in the Road and the DRP programs,” an IRS worker mentioned.
IT employees in ‘limbo’ after back-and-forth reassignments
Over the previous few months, the IRS shipped its On-line Companies division over to the Treasury Division — just for Treasury to switch the staff again to the IRS.
As soon as the On-line Companies staff got here again to IRS, the company dismantled its operations. Staff say they haven’t been advised what work they’ll be doing subsequent.
An IRS IT worker who labored in On-line Companies mentioned that back-and-forth reorganization amounted to a “waste of time, resources and taxpayer dollars.”
“More than 110 federal employees remain uncertain about their roles, responsibilities and long-term future. For now, they technically still have employment — but not meaningful, stable work,” the worker mentioned.
Extra broadly, the IRS moved greater than 1,000 staff out of its IT store in December. Relocated employees have been reassigned to work for the company’s chief working officer, however have been advised this association was solely non permanent. Displaced IRS IT staff have been advised to add their resumes on the finish of final month, to see in the event that they have been a match for different vacant positions.
IRS On-line Companies staff have been initially transferred to Treasury final September. Staff have been instructed to maintain engaged on IRS initiatives — utilizing IRS gear — till Treasury assigned them new work. Throughout this era, staff misplaced entry to IRS instruments important to their jobs, as a result of they have been now labeled as Treasury employees.
Connecting to the IRS’s digital personal community required calling the company’s assist desk each 21 days to request a particular “exemption” password. In accordance with the On-line Companies worker, assist desk wait occasions ranged between half-hour and over three hours.
By December, your entire group obtained a sudden directive ordering them to right away cease all IRS work and all communication with IRS colleagues, efficient instantly.
“Effective immediately, please stand down on any IRS-specific tasks associated with legacy Online Services (OLS),” Deputy Treasury CIO Nick Totten wrote in a Dec. 9 e mail. “IRS IT and Taxpayer Services will assume responsibility for all prior OLS projects, products and initiatives moving forward.”
On-line Service staff have been required to report back to the workplace every day, however as a substitute of finishing up their day-to-day work, they have been advised to give attention to “learning something” or common self-improvement, in accordance with an impacted employee.
An On-line Companies worker mentioned this “limbo” interval lasted greater than 5 weeks. In an e mail despatched Jan. 14, 2026, Totten advised employees they have been “approved to resume supporting activities directed by IRS technology leadership.”
On-line Companies employees ultimately moved again to the IRS, however the company’s chief info officer, Kaschit Pandya, advised them in a Jan. 29 e mail that On-line Companies has “been dismantled.”
“There is no more OLS. All technology efforts are now IT’s to own/make. Please ensure your teams stop operating and executing as if OLS and IT are distinct organizations,” Pandya mentioned.
The On-line Companies worker mentioned coworkers “still do not have any work assignments.”
“None of us were also told where we will belong organizationally,” the worker mentioned.
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