Recent reports suggest between 6,000 and 7,000 IRS employees will be laid off this tax season.
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — Many Americans are wondering how layoffs at the IRS will affect their tax filings and refunds.
According to the latest media reports, the layoffs would affect between 6,000 and 7,000 employees at the IRS. IRS records suggest the agency employed around 100,000 employees before these layoffs were announced.
Based on those numbers, the recently announced layoffs would affect around 6-7% of the IRS workforce.
Sources with knowledge of the situation say the affected employees are probationary employees who have mostly been working at the IRS for less than a year.
CPA Scott Kadrlik with DSB Rock Island says a lot of these probationary employees work the phone lines to help taxpayers who have questions and errors regarding their tax returns.
“People answering phones is always the biggest question during tax season,” Kadrlik said. “Can you get a hold of somebody? Normally there is a wait time. Hopefully, that wait time doesn’t increase too dramatically so people still get their answers back quickly.”
So, any taxpayer who must contact the IRS over the phone could potentially experience longer wait times this tax season.
Kadrlik suspects most taxpayers will not experience any changes after these recent layoffs, because he says most of the tax filing process is handled by computers.
“The processes are rolling along,” Kadrlik said. “Tax returns are being electronically transmitted, they’re being filed. The refunds are coming out. That part of the machine works pretty well.”
According to the IRS website, tax returns filed electronically should take less than 21 days to process.
Returns sent through the mail could take up to four weeks to process, and returns with errors could take even longer, according to the IRS.
Kadrlik says the recently announced layoffs could lead to long-overdue technology improvements at the IRS.
“Their software is old and out of date, but it’s such an overwhelming task,” he said. “So, it will take some time to do that, and this may be the start of that process.”
Kadrlik says the layoffs could also spark new conversations about how the IRS can use artificial intelligence to better serve taxpayers who have questions and problems with their tax returns.
The Minnesota Society of CPAs released the following statement regarding the recently announced layoffs at the IRS:
This is a fluid situation surrounded in uncertainty. While we know the IRS has pledged that the federal filing season will be unaffected by these terminations, we’d advocate for Minnesota taxpayers to connect with their certified public accountants to file their tax returns sooner than later. That said, we’re encouraging our CPA members to prepare their clients for any potential delay in communication, process or engagements from the IRS.