Hundreds at IRS Appeals Office to Take Deferred Resignations

The IRS Office of Appeals is expecting to lose hundreds of staffers to deferred resignations this year, an IRS official said, the latest in an exodus spurred by the Trump administration.

Over 300 staffers have taken the deferred resignation offer, with another 100 requests outstanding, IRS Independent Office of Appeals Chief Liz Askey said at the Eversheds Sutherland 2025 Developments in Tax Administration, Controversy and Enforcement event Wednesday.

“That hurts in some respects, but we are going to do our best to not let that long-term disrupt operations too much,” Askey said on a panel.

Appeals had 1,663 staffers as of April 5, according to data Askey presented—down from around 1,777 at the beginning of the year. The April number doesn’t include the staffers that took the deferred resignations, she said.

“So we are projecting by the end of this fiscal year to be closer to, I think around 1,324 employees,” Askey said.

Fiscal year 2024 ended with staffing levels at 1,746, according to the data, up from 1,543 in 2023.

Askey said after the panel that they have yet to see impacts from the departures.

Experts have warned the broad cuts will hurt taxpayers’ ability to resolve disputes. The office aims to resolve tax disputes without going to court.

The departing Appeals staffers join a flood of departures across the agency. Around 20,000 IRS workers—roughly one-fifth of the agency—sought to take the Trump administration’s second deferred resignation offer, though some were told they could not, Bloomberg Tax reported earlier this month.

The administration alongside billionaire Elon Musk is attempting to shrink the federal government. Several of the efforts, including probationary workers, are locked in legal battles.

The agency is also expecting to detail more of its reduction-in-force plans by the middle of next month.