About 60,000 IRS employees may lose their jobs.
QUICK FACTS:
- If the government shuts down, two-thirds of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees will lose their jobs.
- The House of Representatives and Senate have until September 30th to either fund the government or announce a shutdown.
- According to The IRS’s Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan, 30,063 IRS employees are exempt from the shutdown.
- “Employees working on excepted and exempt activities during a lapse in appropriations will be paid using IRA resources. This plan identifies those activities that will continue during a lapse of annual appropriations in order to protect against the imminent loss of property or life,” the plan reads.
- If the government shutdown “extends beyond five (5) business days, the Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support will direct the Business Continuity Officer to reassess ongoing activities and identify necessary adjustments of excepted positions and personnel,” the contingency plan notes.
- “This plan will become effective after official notification is received from the Department of the Treasury,” the plan states. “Such notification may include additional guidance from the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget that a lapse in appropriations is possible or in effect.”
TAXPAYERS AFFECTED BY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN:
- “Taxpayers would be completely unable to contact most IRS employees during the shutdown,” Charles Rettig, a former commissioner of the IRS, told The Washington Post.
- If a shutdown were to occur for a number of weeks, taxpayers who filed for an extension on their 2022 tax returns have until October 16th to submit their return.
- Refunds for tax filings will not be issued unless they were filed electronically and are free of errors.
- “It will be incredibly difficult for Americans to conduct business with the IRS during the impending government shutdown,” National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement.
- “An additional worry is the impact the shutdown will have on IRS efforts to hire to prevent further backlogs and delays that American taxpayers are likely to experience,” the statement added.
BACKGROUND:
- The IRS is now focusing on “equity” in audits, American Faith reported.
- According to The Washington Times, IRS Commissioner, Danny Wefel, said, “The IRS is on the side of taxpayers, and we will be working to protect hard-working people from scammers or fraudsters.”
- Although the intent appears harmless, some Americans raised concerns that the IRS will probe their financial matters to push equal outcomes over equal opportunities, a primary idea in equity.
