IRS closes 'most operations' as shutdown continues

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

In a notice on its website, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that it would be furloughing many of its employees and closing most of its functions as the federal government shutdown continues beyond the agency's original contingency plan period.

"Due to the lapse in appropriations," the notice read, "most IRS operations are closed. An IRS-wide furlough began on Oct. 8, 2025, for everyone except already-identified excepted and exempt employees."

The IRS had used leftover funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to keep functioning for the first five days of the shutdown.

"Employee who are not exempt or excepted are furloughed and placed in a non-pay and non-duty status until further notice; however, all employees should plan to report to work for their next tour of duty," the website continued. "Employees will be given up to four hours to close out work requirements and receive formal furlough notification."

Furlough notices started going out to employees Wednesday morning. As many as 34,000 of the agency's 74,000 staff are expected to be sent home.

According to the IRS's original contingency plan, excepted activities include many related to preparing for filing season, including "Completion and testing of he upcoming Filing Year programs," and updating tax year forms.

Other activities that should not lapse include revenue collection, minimal operation of the IRS's computer operations to prevent loss of data, processing disaster relief transcripts, and maintaining criminal law enforcement and undercover operations.

Operations that will lapse include, among many others:

• Non-automated collections, including audits;
• Processing non-disaster relief transcripts;
• Taxpayer services such as responding to taxpayer questions.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service will also shut down.
"Today, due to the government shutdown the American people lost access to many vital services provided by the IRS when the agency furloughed thousands of employees," the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Doreen Greenwald, said in a statement. "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."

"Every day these employees are locked out of work is another day of frustration for taxpayers and a growing backlog of work that sits and waits for the shutdown to end," she continued. "For frontline employees, the complete lack of planning left them in the dark about their work status until their supervisor informed them today. This is not the way our government should treat its dedicated nonpartisan public servants. We urge the administration and Congress to reach an agreement that reopens government and restores the services that Americans need and deserve."