IRS tasks more staff without any tax experience to process tax returns
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IRS tasks more staff without any tax experience to process tax returns
“This has the potential to be a disaster,” employees warn as the tax agency scrambles to prepare for the already underway filing season.
The Internal Revenue Service is transferring another batch of employees to assist during tax filing season, renewing concerns among the workforce that staff highly specialized in fields not directly related to taxes are being thrust into roles for which they have no qualification. The temporary reassignments follow IRS shedding tens of thousands of employees over the last year and come amid warnings from the agency’s watchdogs that it is ill-prepared for its busiest time of the year. IRS last week shifted hundreds of human resources employees into its taxpayer services office to assist with filing season workload and this week notified former IT staff that they too would work on issues related to tax returns and customer service.
IRS management is placing employees into contact representative and tax examiner roles, though emails obtained by Government Executive stated they will not engage with taxpayers directly or answer phones. Employees will evaluate and research records to answer inquiries from individual taxpayers or analyze tax returns to help correct accounts, the agency told impacted staff.
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Employees who shared their new assignments with Government Executive worked in the IRS IT office until December, when they—along with about 1,500 colleagues—were transferred to the Office of the Chief Operating Officer. They have sat in limbo with no work assignments ever since. Now, they will work in Taxpayer Services for 120-day details that may be extended. “I am grateful for no longer sitting on my a-- wasting taxpayer money for months, but this has the potential to be a disaster,” said one detailed employee, noting the lack of relevant experience for those assigned to the new roles.
Employees said they have not received any specifics on what they will be doing outside of Zeigler’s email. They said they and their colleagues had no experience working on tax issues. . Another reassigned employee said they worked as a systems administrator and have spent their entire career in large, enterprise IT departments. “I don’t even do my own taxes at home, my wife does,” the person said. “I do IT, not taxes.”
Employees are set to begin training Feb. 23.
More: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/02/irs-tasks-more-staff-without-any-tax-experience-process-tax-returns/411333/
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