IRS workers involved in 2025 tax season can't take buyout until after the taxpayer filing deadline

WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season will not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until after the taxpayer filing deadline, according to a letter sent Wednesday to IRS employees.

The letter says that “critical filing season positions in Taxpayer Services, Information Technology and the Taxpayer Advocate Service are exempt” from the administration's buyout plan until May 15. Taxpayers have until April 15 to file their taxes unless they are granted an extension.

Union leaders and worker advocates have criticized the proposal and question whether the government will honor any buyout contract.

The news comes after President Donald Trump announced a plan to offer buyouts to federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly reduce the government workforce. The program deadline is Feb. 6, and administration officials said employees who accept will be able to stop working while still collecting a paycheck until Sept. 30.

The buyouts, sent to roughly 2.3 million workers, are for all full-time federal employees with some exemptions, including military personnel, employees of the U.S. Postal Service and positions related to immigration enforcement. It's unclear if IRS workers who accept the buyout would only receive five months of pay instead or if they would also get a full eight months.

The federal government employed more than 3 million people as of November, accounting for nearly 1.9% of the nation’s entire civilian workforce, according to the Pew Research Center.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, has advised all federal workers not to accept the offer, which she says is dubious.

“This is not a good deal for them,” Greenwald told The Associated Press. “If you sign this document and then later change your mind, you are left without any power to fight back.”

Since federal employees are working under what is called a continuing resolution that keeps the government funded until March — and the Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits agencies from spending more money than is actually appropriated— funding for the buyout plan “has not been approved,” Greenwald said.

She added: “I do not recommend people sign the document. They need to have control of their own career, and this document does not give it to them.”

The NTEU union represents roughly 150,000 employees in 37 departments and agencies.

“This country needs skilled, experienced federal employees," she said "we are urging people not to take this deal because it will damage the services to the American people and it will harm the federal employees who have dedicated themselves and their career to serving.”

Jan. 27 is the official start date of the 2025 tax season and the IRS expects more than 140 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 deadline.

“What most people don’t realize is that 85% of the federal workforce works outside of D.C.,” she said. "They’re your neighbors, your family, your friends. And they deliver key services for the American people."