The IRS said it was furloughing nearly half of its workforce and shuttering most operations Wednesday, but will continue work to implement President Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts.
Work on preparing for next year’s tax-filing season will also continue, but numerous operations will be halted, including taxpayer services like call site operations.
The agency will also suspend non-automated tax collections and “most headquarters and administrative functions not related to the safety of life and protection of property” during non-filing season, according to the agency’s latest contingency plan.
The plan will idle tens of thousands of employees. While 39,870 — 53.6% of the total workforce — will remain at work, 34,429 will be furloughed.
The union that represents IRS workers condemned the move.
“Today, due to the government shutdown the American people lost access to many vital services provided by the IRS,” said Doreen Greenwald, the national president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “Expect increased wait times, backlogs and delays implementing tax law changes as the shutdown continues. Taxpayers around the country will now have a much harder time getting the assistance they need, just as they get ready to file their extension returns due next week.”
When the government shut down last week, the agency exempted all of its employees from furlough for at least five business days, saying it would stay open by using special funding it was given by Congress in 2020.
But Wednesday morning, the agency announced that, “An IRS-wide furlough began on October 8, 2025, for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees,” according to a statement on the IRS’s website. “Employee[s] who are not exempt or excepted are furloughed and placed in a non-pay and non-duty status until further notice.”
The IRS’s furlough decision letter — which came a day after a White House memo suggested furloughed federal employees might not receive backpay — includes a reminder that “employees must be compensated on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates,” per a law President Donald Trump passed in 2019.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The agency originally dodged the furloughs in part because it bore responsibility for implementing the administration’s marquee tax cuts, including no tax on tips, overtime and Social Security, which Republicans are counting on for a boost in next year’s midterm elections.
“We suspect people will be getting notified all day,” said Daniel Scharpenburg, a union leader at the IRS.