PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Hundreds of federal employees at the IRS Philadelphia office were reportedly laid off on Thursday, according to the workers’ union, whose executive vice president spoke to KYW newsgathering partner NBC10.
Alex Jay Berman of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 71 said Thursday afternoon that IRS employees at the Philadelphia office had begun to receive layoff letters. The union represents over 3,600 IRS employees at that location.
“Everyone is scared, heartbroken, frantic and frustrated because we just want to do our jobs,” Berman told NBC10.
Berman expects a total of 400 employees to be cut by the end of the day. That figure is part of roughly 7,000 IRS employees around the country who The Associated Press confirmed would lose their jobs.
The layoffs affect probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency and largely include workers in compliance departments, according to a person familiar with the plans, who was not authorized to disclose them and who spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday. Compliance work includes ensuring that taxpayers are abiding by the tax code, filing their returns and paying their taxes, among other duties.
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Berman told NBC10 he believes the employees have been terminated under false pretenses.
“The letters are willfully incorrect and, to our belief, unlawful. They say, essentially, your ability, skills and performance do not fit or do not make you a fit for federal employment. And additionally, your performance is not up to par. This is patently untrue,” he said.
“These are being all issued with the exact same wording to every single one of these probationary employees, whether they have just gotten out of training and have no performance metrics, whether they have been here for almost their entire year and have very good performance appraisals. They're all being told it is your performance, and we cannot see that as being anything but under false pretenses.”
It’s unclear what recourse the workers have, but Berman says they are in the courts, trying to get a temporary restraining order against the firings.
“We have a lawsuit which was heard—the opening of the lawsuit was heard on Tuesday,” he said.
“We're still waiting on the judge's decision in that.”
The layoffs are part of the Trump administration's intensified efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection. They come despite IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season being told earlier this month that they would not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline.
It's unclear how the layoffs may affect tax collection services this year. As the nation's revenue collector, the IRS was tasked during the Biden administration with targeting high-wealth tax evaders for an additional stream of income to the U.S., which is $36 trillion in debt. By the end of 2024, the IRS collected over $1.3 billion in back taxes from rich tax dodgers.
The IRS has roughly 90,000 employees total across the United States, according to the latest IRS data. Racial minorities make up 56% of the IRS workforce, and women represent 65%.
In addition to the planned layoffs, the Trump administration intends to lend IRS workers to the Department of Homeland Security to assist with immigration enforcement. In a letter sent earlier this month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to borrow IRS workers to help with ongoing immigration crackdown efforts.
Representatives from the IRS and U.S. Treasury did not respond to requests for comment from the AP.