IRS Plans to Reinstall Some Workers Who Previously Quit (1)

The IRS plans to bring back some employees who took the government’s resignation offer, partially walking back the Trump administration’s efforts earlier this year to downsize the federal workforce.

Treasury is giving IRS leaders the option for some employees who took the deferred resignation offer to return to fill mission critical holes in the agency, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The requests, which will made by senior IRS leaders, will require Treasury Department approval. IRS executives began putting out feelers to gauge interest from employees who took the retirement offer, which “may only be rescinded upon mutual agreement between the employee and IRS,” according to an email seen by Bloomberg Tax.

“NTEU and other IRS advocacy groups have been warning that the massive, indiscriminate job cuts this year were jeopardizing the agency’s ability to meet its mission, and we are pleased that the administration now realizes it cannot afford to lose more of these trained, nonpartisan professionals,” the National Treasury Employees Union National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement Friday. NTEU represents thousands of IRS workers.

This decision comes after the IRS restarted hiring again after a massive exodus of workers earlier this year. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who’s acting as IRS chief after several other leaders exited, told IRS executives this week there wouldn’t be a reduction in force at the IRS in the foreseeable future.

Roughly a quarter of IRS employees—over 26,000 workers—opted to take President Donald Trump’s incentives to leave the federal government. Under the deferred resignation offer, employees will be on paid administrative leave through Sept. 30.

The shift in course aligns with earlier indicators that more workers wanted to exit than the agency anticipated. The IRS previously denied 10% of employees who took the second wave of the deferred resignation offer, citing them as critical to the agency.

Federal News Network was the first to report.