Last Friday the IRS sent an
e-mail alerting its employees that furlough notices are looming, beginning
today.
Everyone
is covered by this furlough, and that means everyone from the acting
commissioner and executives to managers and employees,” said acting IRS
Commissioner Steven Miller.
For
your planning purposes, the first furlough days will be May 24, June 14, July
5, July 22 and August 30, with another two days possible in August or
September.”
The National Treasury
Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley added her penetrating economic insight with the
following:
Furloughing IRS employees is further evidence of the
ongoing damage sequestration is causing across the country.”
Sure. It’s virtually post-apocalyptic
out there.
You may remember that
sequestration cuts kicked-in upon failure to arrive at a federal budget. Sequestration
amounts to approximately 2 pennies per federal dollar – hardly an intimidating
amount to almost anyone not drawing a government check. On the flip side, so
may programs are excluded – social security, Medicare, Obama’s vacations – that
the unprotected programs are facing much more than 2% average cuts.
Furlough means that IRS employees
will be taking days off without pay. The financial effect will vary from family
to family, of course, but it is unwelcome news.
Kudos to the IRS for not
proceeding with furloughs during the filing season. It was already a difficult season,
with a tax bill signed in January and a corresponding delay in the IRS accepting
certain tax schedules and forms.
