The IRS faces numerous challenges as it continues to return to some level of normal operations, including taxpayer services, workplace safety, and agency flexibility for parents balancing work and at-home schooling.
“It’s been pretty quiet, honestly,” said Chad Hooper, president of the Professional Managers Association and an IRS employee, of the continuing restart of tax agency operations. More than 90 percent of IRS employees are back at work, either in offices or remotely via technology, and walk-in offices are open to the extent they can be during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
The IRS told Tax Notes August 13 that the agency has 23,000 full- and part-time workers reporting to its offices around the country, and 59,000 more working from home. All operations centers are open, using “appropriate safety-related precautions,” the agency said.
That contrasts favorably with the situation earlier this year, after IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig ordered agency facilities evacuated in March. The following month, Rettig called for volunteers to staff critical functions such as answering mail, while coronavirus outbreaks at the IRS’s operations in Austin, Texas, and civil unrest in Philadelphia disrupted agency functions.
In recent weeks, though, the Professional Managers Association “has been very impressed with the [IRS’s] agility in addressing issues as they come up,” Hooper said.
In a statement August 11, National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said the tax agency has been responsive in closing off and disinfecting workplaces hit by coronavirus outbreaks, and has made laptops and support equipment available to expand and maintain telework options for about 50,000 employees.
Steven Miller, former acting IRS commissioner (2012-13), said the IRS is returning practitioners’ phone calls again, though the practitioner priority hotline “still isn’t up to speed.” However, he noted, the IRS has resumed examinations, and recently sent a second tranche of letters on microcaptive insurance schemes that have become a priority for IRS enforcement. “Things are improving,” said Miller, now national director of tax at Alliantgroup LP.
New ‘Normal’?
That doesn’t mean IRS operations have returned to a pre-pandemic “normal.”
While the NTEU applauded the tax agency’s monitoring of workplace coronavirus outbreaks and notifications to affected employees, Reardon said its effectiveness varies from office to office. He said the union is encouraging the IRS to improve its communications to lower-level employees and offices, while respecting workers’ health privacy rights.
The IRS said each post of duty is regularly assessed for appropriate cleansing, and required the use of face masks in common areas.
Earlier shortages of personal protective equipment for IRS workers have been mostly resolved, but maintaining a continuous supply of disinfecting supplies has proved challenging, Reardon said.
“The next concern for our members will be how to balance their work with the very real possibility of also having to be home to educate their children,” Hooper said. “We are advocating for increased flexibilities for parents in this situation.”
Reardon said his union is advocating for maximizing employee teleworking opportunities, “because it has [been] proven to maintain productivity and protect employees.”
“NTEU remains concerned about worksites in areas of the country experiencing dramatic spikes of COVID-19 cases,” Reardon added. IRS employees remain at-risk when commuting to and from work on public transportation, and increase the possibility of infecting their family members, he said.
The IRS said its “leadership continues to be impressed by our employees’ resolve to overcome unprecedented challenges. Each day, the IRS staff, working remotely or at our facilities, show impressive dedication to getting the job done.”
Miller discounted a recent media report about IRS employees leaving the agency because of the coronavirus emergency or management mistreatment. Working in an office during the pandemic might be an argument for retiring, he said, but the severe economic downturn could argue in favor of staying put.
On the contrary, the IRS is bringing aboard new hires, Miller noted. “It takes a bunch of new people” to handle the increased demand for taxpayer service and enforcement activities, “and I can’t imagine what that’s like during a pandemic,” he said.