IRS plans to bring back workers it pushed out but now needs

The IRS plans to ask workers who accepted offers of deferred resignation and early retirement to come back to work — an attempt to make up for staffing losses after the agency found it had vacancies in critical jobs.

The tax agency — which lost nearly 25,700 employees, or 25 percent of the workforce, from buyouts, resignations and firings — told employees that it now wants to reverse some of those losses by reassigning workers, asking workers who took buyouts to return and launching a hiring campaign. Those who took the buyout are among more than 154,000 employees throughout government who remain on the payroll, part of a sweeping effort to cull the federal workforce through voluntary departures. The Trump administration initially planned for widespread layoffs, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, but litigation stalled those efforts.

The staffing losses at the IRS could create risks for next year’s filing season, even though the IRS had a strong year in revenue this year, the agency’s independent watchdog warned in June.

It is a particularly eventful time at the IRS. Former Missouri congressman Billy Long left the agency recently after just two months, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was named as acting commissioner, becoming the seventh person to lead the IRS since the start of the year. Last week, Bessent ousted three senior IRS executives responsible for online tax services and the scrutiny of tax-exempt organizations.

The IRS and Treasury press offices did not respond to questions about how many workers the agency hoped to bring back.

The IRS human capital office told managers Wednesday in an email that officials will contact those who took the buyout offers.

“IRS has identified areas where staffing reductions created a potential gap in mission critical expertise,” said the email, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post. “As a result, IRS will utilize all available tools — including details, reassignments, DRP/TDRP rescissions, and extensive hiring — to identify resources to fulfill the mission critical skill sets.”

DRP refers to “deferred resignation program,” a buyout program initially offered government-wide in January and a second time at specific agencies.