IRS rescinding some layoffs and looking to hire back former workers

The Internal Revenue Service is rescinding some of its layoffs and seeking to persuade former workers to come back after being fired or pushed out — staff reductions that included departures from the agency’s operations in Holtsville.

Those job cuts had been among the most highly publicized parts of a broad effort earlier this year by the Trump administration billed as aimed at cutting federal workers, and reducing waste, fraud and abuse.

But now, the nation’s tax collecting arm is doing an about-face as it scurries to fill critical jobs after losing nearly 26,000 employees, nearly one-quarter of its national workforce, from buyouts, resignations and firings. The Government Executive news daily first reported the IRS scramble to boost staffing to fulfill its "mission."

Details of how many job reinstatements might specifically be aimed for Holtsville, if any, were not available Monday from an agency press office in Washington. The IRS also has operations in Bethpage, and an Appeals and Chief Counsel Office in Westbury.

Kristen Thomas, 28, of Farmingville, said she was among hundreds of employees who lost their jobs at the Holtsville operation early this year. She said she is "disgusted" and "appalled" the IRS is seeking to have some employees come back.

Thomas, who worked as a tax examiner and now works as a waitress, has not received any communication asking her to return.

"But who would do that?" she said in an interview, given the disruption and heartache her job termination caused, at a time she was eight months pregnant.

The initial job termination letter received in February, while still a probationary employee, stated the action was being taken because her continued employment was "not in the public interest." Her deferred resignation occurred in early April.

Some Republicans and others have long worked to shrink the size of the IRS, some accusing it of being a vehicle for partisan maneuvering. More recently, critics accused the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden of pushing for expansion of the agency as a way to raise taxes and increase scrutiny on political organizations.

But the extent of this year’s IRS job reductions under the Trump administration, even before some deferred resignations have taken effect, led to warnings inside and outside of the agency that the staffing losses could create customer service and other problems for next year’s filing season.

Those included concerns from the IRS’s internal watchdog that helps taxpayers with problems, who said the agency needed to take steps to prepare.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), a member of the tax code writing House Ways and Means Committee, raised similar concerns. In a statement Monday responding to the IRS reversal, Suozzi said, "Mass IRS layoffs were a bad idea from the beginning. We knew it would create chaos."

The IRS also has been dealing with leadership turmoil since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. After a series of acting leaders, Trump’s pick to be IRS commissioner was finally confirmed in June. But former Missouri Rep. Billy Long was then removed from the job after only two months.

Long had signaled the agency’s turnaround on fired workers before he left in a memo sent to the agency’s Office of Civil Rights and Compliance; which announced a reversal of the "reduction-in-force notices" received by some staffers there in April.

Long wrote in the Aug. 1 memo, "I look forward to your continued employment with the Internal Revenue Service."

Last week, multiple outlets reported the IRS is working to fill a wider range of other staffing holes with hiring, reassignments and rescinding the administration’s deferred resignation offers.

"IRS has identified areas where staffing reductions created a potential gap in mission critical expertise," agency human resources officials said in an email to IRS managers on Wednesday that was obtained by Government Executive.

"As a result, IRS will utilize all available tools," the memo said, including reassignments, deferred resignation rescissions, and external hiring "to fulfill the mission critical skill sets."