IRS Releases Updated Contingency Plan
The IRS has updated its contingency lapse plan, detailing how operations will proceed past the first five days of the federal government shutdown. The plan, which took effect on Oct. 8, 2025, outlines which functions will continue, which will pause and how employees will be managed during a prolonged shutdown scenario through April 2026. Despite the impending employee furlough, the IRS maintains it will continue to protect government property and data systems, issue certificates of U.S. residency and maintain connections with other federal agencies such as Social Security and OPM.
The IRS will continue with other core services:
- Testing and completing the upcoming filing year programs
- Processing returns with payments
- Processing remittances to include payment perfection
- Processing disaster relief transcripts
- Designing and printing of tax forms
The following activities are furloughed and will NOT be conducted:
- Issuing refunds
- Processing non-disaster relief transcripts, and income verification services including express service/return
- Processing individual amended returns
- All audit functions, examining returns and processing non-electronic tax returns that do not include remittances
- Non-automated collections
- Legal counsel for non-excepted activities
- Taxpayer services such as responding to taxpayer questions (call sites)
- The Taxpayer Advocate Service is closed
Out of approximately 74,299 employees, about 39,870 (53.6%) will remain working under “exempt” or “excepted” status. These include positions funded by multi-year appropriations, legally authorized activities, or roles necessary to protect life, property or taxpayer data.
Once appropriations resume, furloughed employees will be recalled within hours under a structured communication plan. The IRS has released additional detailed information for its employees on the employee emergency news web page. The IRS will amend the plan as needed as the shutdown continues or if there is a presidentially-declared federal disaster, in which case, the IRS will support FEMA with call center assistance
