An IRS watchdog is taking a closer look at the agency’s temporary reassignment of mid-career employees to frontline entry-level jobs many of them had no prior experience doing. …
The IRS cut tens of thousands of jobs last year — more than a quarter of its workforce — and fell short of its hiring goals for this year’s filing season.
IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano said the IRS carried out a successful filing season this year, despite losing more than 25,000 employees. He told the House Ways and Means Committee in March that “I feel good about the number of employees I have right now.” …
Employees placed on these involuntary details are doing jobs several pay grades below the work they were hired to perform, but continue to receive their regular paychecks. In practice, the IRS is paying them double or triple what a normal customer service representative or tax examiner would make. …
Several impacted IRS employees told Government Executive that the initial details were involuntary, they have received insufficient training and support for this work, and they have no clear idea what work is available to them at the IRS if they leave these details.
According to two IRS employees currently on details, the agency is looking for volunteers to remain in taxpayer services for a third 120-day tour of duty. Employees who complete a third stint would be away from their day jobs for nearly a year. But these employees say the agency is giving them few alternatives. Both previously worked in IT roles at the agency, and have been told they cannot return to their former jobs. …
In May, IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin acknowledged that some employees on temporary details were unhappy with their current arrangements, and encouraged them to apply for other roles within the agency. Employees, however, said they have applied for other 2210-classified IT positions at the IRS, only for those job announcements to be cancelled days later. …
And not one republican has enough brain cells to see the irony in the fact that the administration that thinks the administrative state is evil because its employees aren’t elected decided to bypass even the constitutional appointment process to make Frank the head of their most reviled agency. I used to think those people just had severe cognitive dissonance. Now I’m certain they just lack cognitive function.
ReplyDeleteIRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano defended the agency's tax enforcement record. Bisignano told lawmakers earlier this year the agency is using technology to target its tax audits more efficiently.
ReplyDeleteThe increased staffing at the IRS under the Biden administration was aimed at bringing increased scrutiny to wealthy individuals and partnerships. That fell off sharply as thousands of auditors were let go. Audits of partnerships fell 76% between 2023 and 2025.
"Disproportionately, this is about the tip-top of the [income] distribution," Sarin says. "Something like the top 1% of earners are responsible for something like a third of the tax gap."
Staffing levels at the IRS continued to decline in the first four months of the current fiscal year. The Trump administration has called for additional cuts in agency funding in 2027.
Yes, another 120 days. This is sure to fix the issue. After the 120 days have elapsed, I am sure things will all go back to normal.
ReplyDeleteThis is an issue at SSA as well, where management will often request that a certain group or class of employees be granted "temporary" access to systems outside the scope of those employees' position description. The justification for these requests will state that the access will be used for one-time-only workloads, that the access is necessary to process extreme workload demands, that the access is required to meet commissioner priorities, or that the access is for overtime-only (frequently, employees who would not otherwise be eligible for OT will moonlight, doing other OT-eligible jobs besides their regular one in the late afternoons or on weekends).
The day this temporary access expires, new requests almost invariably start rolling in for another period of "temporary" access. In some cases, this has gone on for years. It is a way to neatly sidestep classification, or union involvement, or certain systems security scrutiny.
So Frankenstein is repeating what was done to SSA at the IRS.
ReplyDeleteIs he sending them platters of pretzels, too??????