What to Know About Filing Your Tax Return as the I.R.S. Sheds Workers

It’s a tax season unlike any other: As millions of Americans dutifully file their returns, the Trump administration is calling for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and plans to fire as many as 7,000 workers — all while Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is seeking access to detailed taxpayer information.

It is not surprising that many taxpayers are wondering how this may affect their returns and refunds. But despite the uncertainty, tax experts say individuals shouldn’t change their behavior — the sooner you file, the better. There are also several things that taxpayers can do to try to prevent their return from being entangled in the system and avoid potential delays.

“There is no possible way there won’t be a reduction in service, given the I.R.S. has been trying to hire employees and they haven’t even filled all of their openings,” said Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals.

Many of the fired employees were part of the agency’s compliance teams, which deal with auditing and collections, though some were also reportedly at call centers, too.

More than 160 million individual returns are expected to be filed this year. Those that have already been filed are winding their way through the system as usual, though taxpayers appear to be taking a bit longer to file: More than 33 million federal returns were filed as of Feb. 14, down about 5 percent from a year earlier, according to the I.R.S. website. And about 32.8 million of them had been processed, also down roughly 5 percent.

The average refund amount was $2,169, down 32 percent from $3,207 last year. The numbers tend to even out as more returns come in, the agency said on its website. But refunds are also lower, in part, because they don’t include the first wave of returns claiming the earned-income tax credit and the additional child tax credit, which cannot be issued before mid-February.