By Kenneth Corbin

Amid the Trump administration's sweeping and at times chaotic campaign to shrink the size of government and trim head count, a segment of the federal workforce that is critical this time of year is being told they have to stay on the job: the IRS staffers who support the tax-filing process.

An email sent Wednesday told IRS employees involved in the tax-return process that they won't be eligible for what the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is terming "deferred resignations" until May 15, one month after the tax-filing deadline.

OPM had set Feb. 6 as a deadline for federal workers to accept the deferred-resignation offer, which would exempt the employees from the government's return-to-office mandate and keep them on the payroll through Sept. 30. On Thursday, a federal judge pushed back that deadline to at least Monday afternoon, when a hearing on the matter is scheduled.

OPM guidance calls for employees who accept the offer to be "promptly" placed on administrative leave and have their duties reassigned or eliminated, "unless the agency head determines that it is necessary for the employee to be actively engaged in transitioning job duties."

The offer, outlined in a memo titled "A Fork in the Road" and widely seen as the work of Trump advisor Elon Musk, who is leading the campaign to shrink government, told employees that they would have no assurance of continued employment if they didn't take the deferred resignation deal.

Some federal workers, including military personnel, Postal Service employees, and positions involving national security or immigration enforcement were exempted from the deferred-resignation program.

Now add to that list certain IRS staffers.

The Wednesday email sent to all IRS employees said that certain "specific, critical filing-season positions" in the divisions of taxpayer services, information technology, and the IRS' Taxpayer Advocate Service would be exempt from the resignation program, according to a copy of the message viewed by Barron's.

"Exempt employees whose positions are deemed critical are required to remain working through at least May 15, 2025, even if they respond to the OPM email by the February 6 deadline," the email says.

The IRS didn't respond to requests for comment on how many employees are ineligible for the resignation program until after tax season.

The Musk-led effort to downsize the federal workforce has been widely criticized by government unions, including the three that brought the legal challenge that secured a temporary injunction against the program taking effect. Federal workers had been facing a deadline of midnight Thursday to accept the resignation offer.

Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), warns the workers she represents to be skeptical of the terms of the offer, especially in light of this week's email concerning IRS staffers involved in the tax-filing season.

"Not only is this a clear case of bait-and-switch -- they were originally told they would be paid to not work through Sept. 30 -- but it proves that the terms of OPM's so-called offer are unreliable and cannot be trusted," Greenwald says.

The union welcomes the acknowledgment "that IRS employees are vital to the agency mission," she adds. The move to exempt certain employees from the initial deadline is "proving what NTEU has been saying all along," she says--namely that those workers perform critical services for taxpayers.

"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 front line 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."

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2025 14:29 ET (19:29 GMT)

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