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IRS announces major overhaul, layoffs
IRS officials announced a massive restructuring plan Wednesday, which will result in 2,400 layoffs at the tax agency.
The IRS plans to close its Memphis, Tenn., tax return processing facility in October 2005, and will significantly streamline collections procedures, Commissioner Mark Everson said. In 2005, the agency will shift collection and insolvency caseworkers currently spread among 92 different offices into four locations. These changes, made possible by a substantial growth in electronic tax filing, are "fiscally responsible" and will allow the agency to hire new investigators, Everson said.
"Consolidation of back-office case processing is the kind of thing done years ago in the private sector," Everson said. He added that services to taxpayers would not suffer from the restructuring.
But the IRS overhaul would affect 6,700 of the agency's employees, about 6 percent of its 115,000-member workforce. Of these, 2,400 employees should expect to face involuntary separations after January 2005, Everson said. Most of those employees work at the Memphis center, and nearly 2,000 are seasonal or contract workers.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, vowed to fight the layoffs. "Most of the employees targeted by these actions are women and minorities who have probably worked for the IRS for most of their careers," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said.
Rates of electronic filing may have actually leveled off, Kelley explained, rendering the IRS' decision "premature." About 4 million taxpayers filed their returns electronically in 1990, according to the IRS. By 2003, that number jumped to 53 million.
But the General Accounting Office recently concluded that only 61 percent of individual taxpayers will file returns electronically by 2007, nearly 20 percentage points below the IRS' goal for online return rates. "It is premature to start talking about eliminating workers that taxpayers depend upon to process their tax payments and tax returns in a timely manner," Kelley said.
COMMENTS
- I was feeling depressed and I found this site. I am a legally blind person who has worked for the IRS for 17 years. I have worked primarily in collections, ACS, PRP, and case processing. We are going to be RIFed too and our jobs are going to Philadelphia. We do not have our pink slips yet. I quit the union a couple of years ago because they were bickering and fighting amongst themselves. My thought was why should my money go towards a group that does nothing for us? What I read about Holtsville is not what we have been told. They said most of the RIFed people were temps/part time staff. I have no doubt most of us will be laid off because there are just no jobs being offered. I read somewhere they were going to open positions to the outside. That is so unfair. I wrote my congressman, and senators. I doubt it will help. Deanna Bates Posted March 24, 2004 1:19 AM
- Although these times are rough, they are not a surprise. The NTEU blocked the hiring of outside computer contractors who were already at the IRS doing IT work. By doing so the opportunity was lost for the IRS to revitalize its computer staff and make itself more efficient and able to withstand an A76 competition. Now the union cries because of outsourcing...well some of us seem to recall that the original offer of a 15% reduction for computer staff was a whole lot better than the "all or nothing" approach of the union. Now the union can explain to its members why they are losing their jobs to the private sector. Simple economics and logic. At some point in time the "government cheese" has to come to an end. For those of us with real IT skills there is always the chance of being picked up by one of the corporations that win the A76. God Bless America and the free market system. GovExec.com reader Posted March 10, 2004 9:00 PM
- The beat goes on. Now the IRS is starting up another series of RIFs. The first to go on the block are a group that management calls "non-blueprint" employees. In other words employees who have served the IRS for many years that don't quite fit in management's vision du jour of the IT organization. Of course management intends to offer these employees the usual early out buy out option but that won't work for many of them since it would involve too hefty a cut in pension. If management realy wanted to save jobs it would widen the scope of the buy out offer and perhaps create some more soft landing zones for these employees. But it appears that management, at this point in time, just wants these people to disappear as quickly as possible. GovExec.com reader Posted February 24, 2004 7:29 AM
