IRS to remain at full staff for at least 5 days if government shuts down

The IRS would remain fully staffed for at least five days in the event of a government shutdown, the agency said in an email Thursday to employees.

“I am writing to inform you that if there is a lapse in appropriations on March 14, 2025, all employees will be exempt from furlough,” Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause wrote in the email. “Due to existing appropriations, we have sufficient resources to remain open, and IRS operations will continue as normal.”

The federal government would shut down at the end of Friday unless Congress agrees to a continuing resolution.

“I appreciate everyone’s diligence and commitment to serving taxpayers during this filing season,” Krause wrote. Tax-filing season opened Jan. 27.

Krause did not specify the source of the “existing appropriations.” However, the lapsed appropriations contingency plan posted online Thursday identified the source as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, P.L. 117-169, which allocated $80 billion over 10 years to the IRS, in addition to its base funding.

The contingency plan says it “describes actions and activities for the first five (5) business days following a lapse in appropriations.”

The Inflation Reduction Act allocation was reduced to $60 billion over 10 years in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, P.L. 118-47, which Congress passed in March 2024. The 2024 law also provided $12.3 billion as a base budget for fiscal year 2024, the same as in fiscal year 2023.

The IRS lost another $20 billion in December 2024 when Congress approved a continuing resolution that carried forward policies from the previous fiscal year.

Spending money to keep the IRS at full staff — which the lapsed contingency plan listed at 95,486 employees as of March 5 — would further deplete the Inflation Reduction Act funds.

John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner from 2013-2017, also worked as the deputy director of management for the Office of Management and Budget during the three-week partial government shutdown in 1995-1996. In an interview, Koskinen called the use of Inflation Reduction Act funds “appropriate” given that the IRS is in the middle of filing season and dealing with layoffs. He said that even though the response uses some longer-term IRS funding, it allows the agency “to continue having the filing season work in the best interest of taxpayers.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at Martha.Waggoner@aicpa-cima.com.