IRS telework plunged after Trump return-to-office mandate

The percentage of Internal Revenue Service employees who work from home plummeted from 65% to 25% last year after President Trump ordered federal employees to return to in-person work, according to a new report.

The report, released last week by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, examined the pay periods ending March 8 (before the return-to-office policy) and May 3, 2025. On Jan. 20, 2025, President Trump issued his Return to In-Person Work directive, ordering the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies to "as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work inperson…on a full-time basis." The directive also allowed department heads to provide exemptions to in-person work as they deemed necessary. According to the IRS, effective March 8, 2025, it canceled all remote work and frequent and recurring telework agreements. Employees could establish new telework agreements that were categorized as ad hoc, restricted full-time, and approved exceptions. Prior to January 2025, the IRS allowed employees to have telework and remote work arrangements. Telework is a flexible work arrangement that lets employees do their jobs from home or an approved worksite other than the location from which the employee would otherwise work (specifically, not the employee's assigned building). A remote work arrangement is different from telework, the report noted, as an employee with a remote work arrangement performs work at a preapproved location without reporting to an IRS worksite

As of May 2025, significantly fewer IRS employees reported teleworking, declining from 65% to 25% between the pay periods ending March 8 (prior to the IRS's return to in-person work) and May 3, 2025. Between March 9 and May 3, 2025, approximately 70,000 IRS employees reported approximately 2 million daily time charges for in-person work. An employee would have 40 daily time charges if they worked in-office five days per week during this review period. Most IRS employees (96%) were assigned to a building with access card data, and 89% of these daily time charges matched building access card data. However, approximately 11% of daily time charges didn't have corresponding access card data to support in-person work. 

"According to IRS officials, there are several reasons why an employee may have reported in-person work but there was no corresponding access card data," said the report. "These reasons include miscoded time charges or card issues."

The IRS has been improving the tracking systems. "More recent internal reviews have found that 93% of in-person work is supported by building access card data," wrote John Pekarik, acting chief of facilities management and security services at the IRS, in response to the report. "The IRS is actively developing a process to determine the status of the remaining 7%."

The IRS finished its first high-level review of telework use in November 2025, using data from the fourth quarter (July 1 to September 30) of fiscal year 2025. The IRS found that the compliance rate for in-person work averaged 91%. As of this January, the IRS said the draft guidance for its telework review process is still pending approval. 

TIGTA said it encountered a number of challenges reviewing IRS compliance with the Return to In-Person Work directive. For example, it didn't verify whether employees worked in-person for the full day because not every office requires employees to badge in and out upon arrival and departure. TIGTA also couldn't test in-person work for employees assigned to buildings without access card data. 

In the report, TIGTA recommended the IRS coordinate with the Treasury to determine expectations for the quarterly monitoring of telework use; and finalize its processes and procedures for the quarterly monitoring of telework use. IRS officials agreed with both of the report's recommendations.

Last year, media reports indicated that the return-to-office mandate was far more chaotic for IRS employees, with many encountering lack of basic supplies such as toilet paper and desks, as well as sufficient parking and office space.