The IRS Is Rescinding Job Offers (UPDATE)

Posted on by Going Concern News Desk
1040 tax forms

On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order freezing federal hiring for federal civilian positions vacant as of noon on January 20, 2025. The freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding.

While broadly covering everything except the military, immigration enforcement, national security and public safety, the order contained an interesting call-out of the IRS specifically:

Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Director of OPM and the Administrator of the United States DOGE Service (USDS), shall submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition. Upon issuance of the OMB plan, this memorandum shall expire for all executive departments and agencies, with the exception of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This memorandum shall remain in effect for the IRS until the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Director of OMB and the Administrator of USDS, determines that it is in the national interest to lift the freeze.

It didn’t take long before the IRS started contacting people to rescind tentative job offers:

Source: “My MAGA Sister in Law Just Got This After Accepting a Job with the IRS” on r/leopardsatemyface

For the record, the IRS was already having trouble hiring all those agents the Inflation Reduction Act was supposed to empower them to hire. In June of last year, VP of Research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) Demian Brady wrote “Qualified Applicants Aren’t Jumping To Work For the IRS” and said:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is struggling to hire a workforce commensurate with the super-sized budget expansion that it recently received. According to a report from the Treasury Department, qualified candidates just aren’t jumping forward to work for the tax cops. It’s yet another example of how the IRS’s budget boost was hastily implemented, poorly designed, and dangerous for taxpayers.

Adding to that, then-commissioner Danny Werfel warned of layoffs in 2026 months before the election if the agency couldn’t get a funding boost. He also complained about the figure of 87,000 new agents getting thrown around as fact when it was actually just an early Treasury estimate and, as we pointed out, impossible to achieve due to a shortage of qualified applicants, the slow and exceptionally tedious hiring process at the IRS, and the government’s inability to compete in an environment where accounting professionals are finally demanding salaries in line with their education and experience. See also:

Where TF Is the IRS Supposed to Find 87,000 Agents?

Still, they did manage to find some people and now those people are getting their offers rescinded. Along with people with offers from various other federal agencies, obviously.

We predict terrible tax advice on TikTok will see a 600% increase in this environment, assuming TikTok survives.

Update: The IRS posted the following information on its jobs page:

  • Offers with a start date ON OR BEFORE February 8, 2025, will be allowed to continue/proceed with the hiring/onboarding process.
  • Offers with a start date AFTER February 8, 2025, OR an unconfirmed start date will be revoked.
  • All jobs posted to USAJOBS.gov and/or any other external website used to market jobs (for example, Monster or LinkedIn) with the federal government will be removed.

Related Posts

IRS Agent Wants to Know If There’s Life After Government Work

Welcome to the when-do-the-blackouts-start edition of Accounting Career Emergencies. In today’s edition, an IRS revenue agent is thinking about the future and wonders if there is anything to look forward to after a stretch inside the House of Shulman. Will he be greeted with contempt or disdain by potential employers outside of the Treasury Department?

Trapped in your job? Not sure if you can bottle up your rage during your upcoming compensation discussion? Need ideas for your next advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll come up with something to bring everyone closer together.

Back to the Shulman Soldier:

Dear Career Advice Brain Trust,

I am currently a freshly minted IRS revenue agent in the Northeast right out of school. I’m the guy that audits the tax returns of small business and the self-employed (Schedule C’s and 1120’s). I’ve been at the job for about 10 months, and lately I’ve been starting to wonder: if this whole IRS thing doesn’t pan out, what are my options? Do public accounting firms of any size see any value in the experience gained here? From what I’ve experienced, employment at the IRS is a one-way street, either attracting grads with the ink still wet from their degree, or mid-career public accountants who value personal and family time more than money. Since I’m a young grad with no family to speak of, I feel like a lot of the non-monetary benefits are lost on me.

This job has its pros and cons. It’s probably one of the safest jobs in the country for anyone with an accounting degree, and it’s borderline illegal to work more than 40 hours per week because we’re unionized. Supposedly once you’re in for a few years, you can do “anything you want” within the organization, but I find that hard to believe because due to our reduced FY 2012 budget, we’re the last class to be hired for a while, so who is going to keep doing my job when everyone goes to do “anything they want?” Also, after 3-4 years, the salaries plateau big time, and we definitely make less than our public accounting counterparts throughout our careers. Furthermore, it literally takes an act of Congress to get anything substantial changed.

So my bottom line question to you (and the readers) is this: if I wanted to jump ship and go somewhere that my title carries a little less universal hatred, as well as advance my career prospects, what could I expect for opportunities, particularly in the public accounting sector?

Sincerely,
Agent Curious

Dear Agent Curious,

I’m happy to say that you’re first IRS agent to come to us for advice. Whether that means you value what we have to say or you’re simply desperate isn’t clear but regardless, thanks for reaching out.

Now then. Your problem. Personally, I feel as though the stigma associated with working for the IRS is a little overblown. Just because some of your colleagues chase down loose change and politicians call you names, that doesn’t mean you don’t have skills that aren’t valuable for private employers. The knowledge you are curating about small businesses and their compliance issues are extremely valuable and many CPA firms would gladly talk to you about your experience and how it will work for them and their clients.

Furthermore, with your inside knowledge about the Service and how is picks and chooses returns for audit, you’ll be able to better serve your clients by saying, “I assure you this will result in a Young Buck-esque raid of your business.” This knowledge of the inner workings might even be more valuable than what you actually learn on the job.

Right now, your best opportunities would be with public accounting firms that specialize in tax compliance for small businesses. Just like any other job, if you are able to jump around inside the Service and see various types of returns (partnerships, larger businesses), your skill set will be even more valuable. A few more years doing Doug Shulman’s dirty work could pay big dividends down the road.

Any former/current IRS agents out there with insight? Drop your knowledge in the comments.

2 thoughts on “The IRS Is Rescinding Job Offers (UPDATE)”

  1. The IRS needs to really figure out this process.

    I remember interviewing with them 2 years ago and it was a massive panel interview, I was completely shocked because none of this was explained it to me.

    Afterwards, I was sure I fumbled the interview and heard nothing for 3 months…and then I was sent an offer but it was caveated that it was an offer that could be rescinded at any time and that my start date could be changed.

    Regardless, that was a terrible experience

    1

    1. Same. I interviewed for a GC role. Super surprised that after the screener, the first interview was a massive panel. I started talking about my large business experience and my excitement to join LB&I. They let me know (for the first time) that this was for SBSE and that there wasn’t even an LB&I division in the office I was interviewing for. Proceeded to give the worst interview of my life.

      4 months go by and I get an email offer and a phone call, where they let me know I was not their first candidate.

      1

Comments are closed.