The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency’s plans, and cuts could come as soon as next week.

Summary

The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers during tax season as part of the Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal workforce.

The cuts align with a broader initiative led by Elon Musk’s DOGE to eliminate agencies and reduce spending.

While the exact number of affected workers is unclear, the layoffs could impact tax processing for over 140 million returns.

Meanwhile, 14 state attorneys general have sued, arguing DOGE’s authority is unconstitutional and requires Senate confirmation.

  • Thunderbird4@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 days ago

    I had the same idea and looked into it. If you’re a salaried employee, the only way to not have withholdings taken from your paychecks is to claim withholding exemption on your W4, which you can only legally do if you had no tax burden last year and expect to have none this year. The threshold for that is really low, like $13,800/yr I think.

    You can always try it anyway, but if they do come looking for their money, there will be penalties to pay on top of the tax amount.

    It sucks because even just a high yield savings account could make you an extra $800 or so on your income tax money if you just held it and paid as a lump sum.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      5 days ago

      One should be able to at least do some exemptions on the W4, as long as some amount of money is paid each quarter. So it wouldn’t be as effective as a blanket halt of payment, but if everyone collectively reduced payments, it would have some effect while not breaking any laws. (Just save that money in a high yield savings account to pay it when it’s due the next year.)