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IRS EMPLOYEES ON FURLOUGH


Lee B

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On 12/22/2018 at 11:15 AM, cbslee said:

I am sure the furloughing of 52,000 IRS employees will have little or no effect. 🤔

I am so happy that I found a great guy at PPL on Thursday before this happened. I have been trying for over a year to get a deceased client's refund back for her son and they have given him so many hoops to jump through that it was ridiculous. It was a straight forward return with no issues that we could see. We gave them everything that they asked for. When I called again Thursday, it took 45 minutes on hold at various times, but he actually said that the previous people did not do their job. He had it all straightened out and said that if the money does not show up in 12 weeks, that we have to go to the Taxpayer Advocate. I suppose now that it will get shoved on someone's back burner, but I feel better that at least someone tried to help.

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The updated numbers are 69,922 employees have been furloughed and 9,946 employees remain at work.

The current shutdown plan being used by the IRS remains in effect until midnight Friday, December 28th.

I assume that they are madly scrambling trying to figure out what to do next week.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

"While the ongoing government shutdown had some concerned about a possible delayed start to tax season, the Internal Revenue Service confirmed Monday that it would begin processing tax returns on Jan. 28 – and issuing refunds on a regular schedule.

“We are committed to ensuring that taxpayers receive their refunds notwithstanding the government shutdown. I appreciate the hard work of the employees and their commitment to the taxpayers during this period,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement.

In 2011, the Office of Management and Budget had directed the IRS not to pay out tax refunds during “a lapse in annual appropriations,” but this year, at the request of the Treasury Department, the OMB reviewed the rules and reversed itself"

"Tax refunds will go out,” the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told reporters at a briefing on Monday. (See “IRS will pay refunds during shutdown, easing pressure for a deal.”)

As a result, the IRS will recall what it described as “a significant portion” of its furloughed workers, and plans to release more details in an updated version of its “FY2019 Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan” in the near future"

I wonder if these will be furloughed employees working without pay like the TSA and the Coast Guard ?

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13 hours ago, cbslee said:

I wonder if these will be furloughed employees working without pay like the TSA and the Coast Guard ?

Don't worry about them; they will be paid ALL back-pay once it ends.  My brother in law works for the dept of agriculture.  He has been through this before.  They get paid, just later.  It's far less disturbing and disruptive than suddenly getting laid off from a regular job, not knowing how many months it will be before you get another.  Yeah, they don't know when, but they do know they WILL go back, and will get all back pay.  That never happens in the non-gov't-job world.

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"Under an updated contingency plan covering the upcoming filing season, the IRS will recall 57% of its workforce to handle tax season duties, the agency reported Tuesday.

Temporary funding for the IRS for fiscal year 2019 expired at midnight on Dec. 21. Since then, the IRS has been operating under a contingency plan that furloughed 88% of its workforce, and only 9,946 were considered “excepted/exempt” and allowed to continue working. Under the new plan, 46,052 IRS employees will be considered “excepted/exempt” and will return to work.

The new plan will allow the IRS to process paper and electronic returns and issue refunds to taxpayers. The IRS had previously announced that tax season will start on Jan. 28 and that it would be issuing refunds during the government shutdown.

The IRS will also be opening its call sites and responding to taxpayer questions.

All IRS audit and examination functions and nonautomated collections will continue to be put on hold during the shutdown."

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In our state it is illegal for private employers to not pay people for time worked, and the DOL comes down on them hard.  How do the Feds get away with this? And who in the IRS (or any other gov't agency) would gladly go to work in this high-stress job if they could just stay home and know they'll get paid anyway? I don't want to go into politics here, but at the very least can't our gov't find a way to pay those who are working? Not only will it incentivize them but it's the right thing to do.  I can imagine people calling the call centers and getting very rude responders, who had to get out of their PJs and go to work for nothing and didn't get enough training in the new tax laws to even answer the questions.  To repeat myself, I am SO not looking forward to this tax season.

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10 hours ago, Catherine said:

They'll get paid all back pay after the fact.  Per my brother in law, who has gone through this before (he works for the Agriculture department).

Just curious, though.  Do the ones that don't have to come in because they are non-essential get paid their normal rate, and the ones that do have to come to work because they are "essential" get paid their normal rate?  So in other words, not working pays the same as working in this case?

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Its odd how we have a love hate towards the IRS, we disliked them when we are on hold for up to an hour or more, or when nothing is resolved, or when you really need to talk to someone but they are closed because its a federal holiday etc...  Now we really need them because it might have an impact on our revenue etc.  

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17 hours ago, SaraEA said:

In our state it is illegal for private employers to not pay people for time worked, and the DOL comes down on them hard.  How do the Feds get away with this? And who in the IRS (or any other gov't agency) would gladly go to work in this high-stress job if they could just stay home and know they'll get paid anyway? I don't want to go into politics here, but at the very least can't our gov't find a way to pay those who are working? Not only will it incentivize them but it's the right thing to do.  I can imagine people calling the call centers and getting very rude responders, who had to get out of their PJs and go to work for nothing and didn't get enough training in the new tax laws to even answer the questions.  To repeat myself, I am SO not looking forward to this tax season.

I agree with you.   But the evil side of me wants to say..."Now you know how we feel.  You have been pushing us to do your audit work at the preparation end and not paying us.   Now you can do your work without getting paid as well!  Serves you right."

But I do feel for them.   It sucks to be the property of the government.   They do live their lives just like the rest of us and it must be hard on their families.

Tom
Modesto, CA

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I've never had a federal government employee before now. He told me he'll get paid but in the mean time they have to pay all bills from savings. They have about 2 1/2 months of expenses saved and he's not sure if it'll be enough before another paycheck shows up. The wife is really worried about it and they are taking steps to get the paperwork completed so he can borrow from his retirement plan if needed. If you are a paycheck to paycheck type family, it's a serious issue.

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On 1/16/2019 at 2:11 PM, BulldogTom said:

It sucks to be the property of the government.  

We all get to work for the government for free until (depending on state tax burdens) April or May.  That's how long we work to earn the money to pay our taxes.  Sorry for them but not terribly sympathetic.  They can get unemployment, too, and then get all the back pay later.  The ones being called back in to work (with no pay) can opt-out of doing that to preserve unemployment.  I got laid off a half-dozen times in a bit over a dozen years, and no one ever gave a dingleberry about whether I had savings or could pay my bills, nor was there any guarantee of work ever again.  For those old enough to remember, the early 80's were *not* easy times to get a new job.

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28 minutes ago, Catherine said:

We all get to work for the government for free until (depending on state tax burdens) April or May.  That's how long we work to earn the money to pay our taxes.  Sorry for them but not terribly sympathetic.  They can get unemployment, too, and then get all the back pay later.  The ones being called back in to work (with no pay) can opt-out of doing that to preserve unemployment.  I got laid off a half-dozen times in a bit over a dozen years, and no one ever gave a dingleberry about whether I had savings or could pay my bills, nor was there any guarantee of work ever again.  For those old enough to remember, the early 80's were *not* easy times to get a new job.

You have an interesting attitude ?  After all they are people too, no different than you and me.

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In our state those who are furloughed can collect unemployment but have to pay it back when they get their back pay.  At least this can help tide them over until their pay comes.  Those who are working without pay are not eligible because they are "not available for work" meaning not looking for another job because they are already performing one.  I know a couple who both work for IRS, one an auditor and the other in upper level.  Both must be home with no income so unemployment should help them.  I think there might be a lot of resentment in all gov't agencies when some coworkers get to stay home and play and get unemployment while others have to go to work every day without pay or UE.  A private company would never get away with that.

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13 hours ago, cbslee said:

You have an interesting attitude ?  After all they are people too, no different than you and me.

That is EXACTLY my point.  They have jobs that pay better than what most of us make.  Those jobs come with benefits most of us can only dream of from afar.  They can NOT be fired,  under usual circumstances, even if they goof off all day surfing kiddie porn, very much UNlike you and me.  But people are bemoaning their fate as if they are being made to walk the plank into shark-infested waters - when what they are facing is far LESS than a regular garden-variety lay-off.  With NO guarantee of call-back, NO guarantee of back pay eventually, and no one publicly mourning their dire fate.

Sorry; they got nothing from me.  NOTHING.  I've faced nasty lay-offs too many times, where I quite literally had NO idea where my next job was going to come from, or how I was going to survive until then, with no savings (used up in the last lay-off and just barely caught up to zero with no reserves yet) to help at all.  In desperation taking crap jobs doing what I did to put myself through school, running a cash register at nights at a gas station ALONE (young and female), substitute teaching knowing I was working that day because of a phone call at 4AM, day-work bookkeeping via an agency running a paper-tape calculator.  Quite a come-down from the supposedly well-paid engineering jobs I had spent years qualifying for.  Work a high-school dropout could do.  All for minimum wage but nowhere near 40 hrs/week - not just for lack of work, but also because I had to keep up the job search.  Yeah, it sucks being out of work.  It sucks worse when you don't have a call-back with pay waiting for you in a month or two.

I got NOTHING.  

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17 hours ago, cbslee said:

You have an interesting attitude ?  After all they are people too, no different than you and me.

I don't think "interesting" is the word you're looking for.  Yeah, they're people too, but their circumstances are quite different from you and me.  People here would kill for a government job, but you can't get one unless you "know" somebody or are related to them (it's pretty much closed to applicants without a connection).  They have pay, benefits, insurance, and retirement that private sector people can only dream about.  One low-level government worker's wages would hire three clerks in private business.  Plus, as Catherine notes, about the only way to get fired is to pull a gun on somebody.  I also have been laid off a few times and there was no pot of gold waiting at the end of my unemployment rainbow.  As for the tear-jerking paycheck to paycheck angle; give me a break - many responsible private sector people (with notable exceptions) making much less than the fed group can weather the storm; why can't they?

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