The IRS said it plans to furlough nearly 50% of its employees as the U.S. government shutdown continues, according to the agency’s new contingency plan. As the government shutdown enters its second week, the Internal Revenue Service is cutting paid staff to reduce spending. The agency’s original appropriations lapse contingency plan specified operations for the first five business days and said the agency would use funds from the Democratic Inflation Control Act to stay open.
According to the revised contingency plan, only 39,870 IRS employees, or 53.6%, will remain on the job as the shutdown continues.
The IRS continues to be under scrutiny heading into 2025
The IRS has already seen thousands of layoffs this year due to the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the agency. The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Elon Musk, has cut tens of thousands of government jobs, including IRS employees. At the end of 2024, the agency employed approximately 100,000 staff, but that number remained at around 75,000 at the time of writing.
While many employees have been furloughed, hundreds if not thousands of people are still working without pay due to government spending cuts. Therefore, a resolution is still needed across the IRS to avoid further unpaid employee days and further furloughs. Additionally, many employees across government agencies who were stripped of funding as a result of the shutdown may start screaming because they haven’t been paid anyway.
The government has now been shut down for more than a week, and Congress remains stuck on funding plans. The Senate once again failed to advance competing proposals from Democrats and Republicans to fund the government. To make matters worse, President Donald Trump is currently controversially teasing that many federal workers may not receive back pay amid the government shutdown, saying Democrats in particular “don’t deserve it.” “I think it depends on who you’re talking about. I can tell you this: Democrats are putting a lot of people at great risk and danger, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
