The Internal Revenue Service is walking back layoffs and resignation agreements after slashing staff numbers earlier this year.
The agency is planning to send an email on Friday asking a number of employees who had previously accepted deferred resignation offers if they want to remain in their positions, according to an IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Compliance Manager familiar with the matter.
The move comes amid severe personnel shortages and marks a significant backtrack for the agency that has cut approximately a quarter of its staff.
Managers were informed via internal email that this decision was made because of a need to “fill critical vacancies.”
According to the employee familiar with the matter, the IRS is hoping to bring back approximately 300-400 workers who have been on paid leave for the past three to five months.
Employees on paid leave were originally scheduled to continue receiving paychecks through Sept. 30, at which point they would formally resign.
“These people have been sitting at home and collecting a paycheck—now they want them back,” the employee said. “It’s a s–tshow.”
As recently as June, the agency was still aiming to bring its workforce down from over 100,000 employees to under 60,000, but reductions created a “potential gap in mission critical expertise,” according to an internal email seen by Government Executive.
“As a result, IRS will utilize all available tools—including details, reassignments, DRP/TDRP rescissions, and external hiring—to identify resources to fulfill the mission critical skill sets,” the email, sent by the agency’s acting human capital officer and acting deputy human capital officer to managers, read.
Employees who accepted deferred resignation offers will not be penalized if they choose not to return to the agency.
The IRS has had a tumultuous year since President Donald Trump took office, becoming a target of the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk and losing roughly a quarter of its workforce in less than six months.
Earlier this month, Trump’s appointee for the top role at the agency, Billy Long, was removed after less than two months in the position, making him the shortest-lived IRS commissioner in the agency’s history.
Prior to his ousting, Long reversed an earlier decision to lay off the majority of employees at the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Compliance. The office, which aims to protect taxpayers from discrimination in the tax code and audits, was one of the first at the agency to be targeted, losing 80% of its employees in April.
In an Aug. 1 memo, Long wrote to previously laid-off employees, “This memorandum serves as cancellation of your prior RIF notice of separation.”
“It supersedes any previous notices you may have received … I look forward to your continued employment with the Internal Revenue Service.”
Employees who accepted voluntary resignation, including deferred resignations, early retirement or incentive payments worth up to $25,000, were not affected by the reversal.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the IRS for comment.
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