IRS Furloughs Nearly Half of Workforce as Shutdown Drags On

The IRS will furlough just under half of its staff and pause most of the agency’s taxpayer services as gridlock in Congress pushes the government shutdown into its second week.

The plan released Wednesday, which calls for about 34,000 workers to be furloughed, represents a sharp departure from the first week of the shutdown. That outline allowed the agency’s 74,299 employees to continue working with pay by using leftover funding from the Biden administration.