The IRS has notified workers essential to the 2025 tax filing season that they must work until May even if they accepted the Trump administration’s federal employee buyout offer, the deadline of which was put on hold temporarily by a federal judge on Thursday.
District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. said he wants to get more information from the administration and unions representing more than 800,000 civil servants that seek to block the Office of Personnel Management’s offer at a hearing next week before making a decision, the New York Daily News reported on Feb. 6. A lawsuit filed in Boston by the legal group Democracy Forward on behalf of unions sought to block the offer.
Until then, O’Toole told the Trump administration to press pause on its self-proclaimed “fork in the road” deadline.
“I enjoin the (government) from taking action to implement the so-called fork directive, pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” the judge said.
Up to 2 million federal government workers had faced the looming deadline of 11:59 p.m. tonight to accept OPM’s offer of buyouts that would allow them to collect paychecks for six months.
The White House claims about 40,000 workers have submitted paperwork to accept the offer from the Trump administration, which says they may get paid until September in exchange for their resignation.
Some of those employees who took the so-called “deferred resignation” offer work at the IRS. But in an email sent to IRS employees from the agency’s Human Capital Office on Feb. 5, those in “critical filing season positions” in Taxpayer Services, Information Technology, and the Taxpayer Advocate Service were told they’re exempt from the buyout plan until May 15, 2025, Bloomberg Tax reported. Employees who already resigned must work through the extended period.
Nearly half of the IRS workforce, which comprises 100,433 people, are in Taxpayer Services or Information Technology, according to the 2024 report to Congress from the National Taxpayer Advocate.
In an email, the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers, had urged its members not to take the OMP’s offer to resign.
“You are a vital part of the non-partisan civil service, and you work hard every day to deliver for the American people. We sincerely value you and will always have your back,” the NTEU message said.
Doreen Greenwald, national president of the NTEU, called the situation with IRS employees a “clear case of bait-and-switch,” since federal employees were originally told they would be put on paid administrative leave through Sept. 30.
According to the Federal News Network, Greenwald said the terms of OMP’s buyout offer “are unreliable and cannot be trusted.”
“We do welcome the admission, however, that IRS employees are vital to the agency mission,” she added. “By requiring IRS employees to stay on the job longer than promised, the [Trump] administration is proving what NTEU has been saying all along: IRS employees are essential and without them, the jobs that the American people depend upon will not get done. In the case of the IRS, it’s answering taxpayer questions during filing season, processing tax returns, and issuing refunds. But this holds true for frontline federal employees across government who safeguard the public health, promote economic growth, and secure the nation. If their jobs are arbitrarily eliminated, those services are in jeopardy.”
On his first day in office on Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order to freeze hiring at federal agencies, which is expected to last at least 90 days—except at the IRS. Trump ordered the freeze to remain in effect for the IRS until new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent deems it necessary to lift the order.
Due to the hiring freeze, all IRS job offers with a start date on or before Feb. 8, 2025, will be allowed to continue/proceed with the hiring/onboarding process, the agency said in a post on its jobs website. However, offers with a start date after Feb. 8 or those with an unconfirmed start date have been revoked.
With Tribune Wire Services
Thanks for reading CPA Practice Advisor!
Subscribe Already registered? Log In
Need more information? Read the FAQs
Tags: 2025 tax filing season, federal workers, IRS, IRS employees, Taxes, trump
