Wednesday marked the sixth business day of the government shutdown, with the IRS giving notice of an agency-wide furlough.
The IRS contingency plan released last week covered the first five days of a government funding lapse, but it left unclear the agency’s plans in the case of a longer shutdown.
The agency posted an updated contingency plan Wednesday, indicating that 53.6% of IRS employees will be retained during the shutdown (39,870 out of 74,299). The updated plan covers October 8, 2025, to April 30, 2026 – a period labeled as “filing season.”
The retained employees will perform limited tasks, including those related to the One Big Beautiful Bill (P.L. 119-21), as set forth in the plan. But the bulk of the retained employees – 24,470 – are in Taxpayer Services.
Also retaining higher numbers of employees are Small Business/Self-Employed (4,911), Information Technology (4,552), Criminal Investigation (3,001), and Large Business and International Division (1,039).
On October 8, the IRS posted a message to employees on its website stating that a furlough has begun for all but “already-identified excepted and exempt employees.” Furloughed employees will be “placed in a non-pay and non-duty status until further notice,” per the post.
IRS employees were given four hours “to close out work requirements and receive formal furlough notification.” Reuters reported Wednesday that the total number of furloughed employees is over 34,000.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service, which maintains a separate webpage, said that “all Taxpayer Advocate Service offices across the country are closed. No staff will be available to assist you during this time.”
According to a more detailed letter to employees from IRS acting Human Capital Officer David Traynor, furloughed workers “are prohibited by law from working, even on a voluntary basis.” In addition, any approved paid leave for the furlough period is cancelled, according to Traynor’s letter. The letter does acknowledge that “the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires employees of the federal government who are furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations to be compensated for the period of the lapse.”
The IRS message to employees refers individuals to the media for updates on the shutdown. TAS, likewise, instructs individuals: “Please check your local media for news about when our offices will reopen.”
Traynor’s letter indicates that once employees hear that a continuing resolution to fund the government is approved, they “will be expected to report to work no later than four (4) hours after that announcement, if it occurs on a workday.”
Reactions
Chief Counsel and Director of Ethics and Anti-Corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund Virginia Canter in comments provided to Checkpoint said that federal employees “don’t choose when the government shuts down.”
“Regardless of politics or party, government employees are our fellow citizens who have chosen to dedicate their lives to serving our nation,” said Canter. “They are not bargaining chips, and any attempt by the Administration to disavow its legal obligations represents an extraordinary degree of bad faith.”
Democracy Defenders Fund, American Federation of Government Employees, and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees sent a joint letter Wednesday to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought pointing to the plain language of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 signed by President Trump during his first term.
Per the law, which came on the heels of the previous government shutdown that spanned a month, each furloughed employee “as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work.”
Those payments must be made “at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates. They are also “subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.”
But as the organizations told Vought, the OMB reportedly is backtracking on its own guidance implementing the 2019 law and is “now potentially disclaiming that responsibility.”
According to the letter, the OMB “now believes that the responsibility to pay furloughed employees is not ‘self-executing’ and that the law merely acts as a ‘permanent authorization,’ but not an ‘obligation,’ to pay employees.” In other words, the backpay requirement is not in effect “unless Congress explicitly states so in separate legislation.”
The organizations urged the OMB director to “do the right thing and adhere to the law,” as government employees ” are our fellow citizens who have chosen to dedicate their lives to serving our nation” and “are not negotiating chips.”
Melanie Lauridsen, vice president of tax policy and advocacy at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, told Checkpoint that it is appreciated that the IRS “is taking steps to mitigate some of the impact of the government shutdown” like retaining nearly 54% of employees, including those involved in One Big Beautiful Bill guidance projects.
“However, we are deeply concerned that the IRS will not have the ability to meet all of the needs of taxpayers during this filing season. ,” Lauridsen cautioned. “Any shutdown can create greater backlogs for the IRS and hardships for taxpayers and practitioners. We continue to urge the IRS to except 100% of its employees for the duration of the shutdown.”
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