An IRS taxpayer assistance office in Chattanooga is closed as the federal government’s partial shutdown stretches into its sixth business day.
The tax-collection agency had remained open at full capacity for the first week of the shutdown, funded by a 2022 law.
A sign taped to the Uptain Road office’s door notifies would-be assistance-seeking taxpayers of the closure.
“Due to government shutdown, this office is closed until further notice,” it said.
A security guard was inside the building when a reporter visited but gestured that the office was closed.
The office was targeted by the “Department of Government Efficiency” earlier this year. The department said it could save $353,845 on the agency’s lease of its 17,786-square-foot local office.
Despite repeated suggestions to the contrary from President Donald Trump’s second administration earlier this week, a letter sent to furloughed employees at the agency Wednesday said they were entitled to back pay.
Federal agencies initiated partial shutdown plans Oct. 1 after Congress failed to reach an agreement to temporarily fund the government. Democrats in the Senate, where a budget resolution requires 60 votes to pass, have demanded that Congress extend health care subsidies for some Americans who purchase insurance through the government’s marketplace.
A BUSY TIME
The uncertainty about staffing comes as an Oct. 15 filing deadline is fast approaching for some corporations and individuals who filed for an extension. All Tennessee taxpayers were granted a filing extension until Nov. 3, 2025, after a series of storms, tornadoes and flooding hit the state in April.
Bloomberg reported that the agency was planning to furlough about half — 34,000 — of the agency’s employees if the shutdown continues, roughly the same proportion it listed in a plan ahead of the last government shutdown in 2018-19.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the industry’s largest membership organization, warned against furloughing workers at such a consequential time.
Staff Photo by Jules Feeney / The IRS taxpayer assistance office on Uptain Road was closed for business Oct. 8, 2025, the sixth day of a federal government shutdown.Accountants can feel stress at this time of year, something that would only be compounded if the shutdown lingers and IRS staff are furloughed, said Melanie Lauridsen, the vice president of tax policy and advocacy at the organization.
On top of the filing deadline stress, Lauridsen said in a press release, the tax-collecting agency must also issue guidance to taxpayers and accountants on changes to the tax code included in the “one big beautiful bill.”
“An extended shutdown could potentially impact the start of the 2026 filing season, which would be detrimental to the government’s ability to collect revenue and issue critical guidance on the new tax law,” Lauridsen said. “Even a partial shutdown of the IRS for an extended period is deeply concerning, and we urge the IRS to retain its full staff until the shutdown is over.”
The IRS’s initial contingency plan allowed for all 74,000 employees to continue working through the first five business days of the shutdown but did not specify what would happen if the shutdown extended into a sixth working day.
Funding for the first week of operations came from a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, signed under then-President Joe Biden. That provision of the bill sought to modernize and improve the agency’s service and increase its ability to audit high-income taxpayers.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga agricultural office, federal parks close amid shutdown)
FURLOUGHS OR LAYOFFS
Trump had suggested that some federal workers would not receive back pay once a funding package is signed.
“It really depends on who you’re talking about,” he said to reporters at the Oval Office on Tuesday. “But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
The president’s comments are at odds with a law he signed in 2019 after the previous shutdown. That law guaranteed back pay to furloughed federal workers impacted by that and future shutdowns.
A letter sent to IRS employees Wednesday, however, said the furloughed workers would receive back pay. The letter was published by The Hill and first reported by the Government Executive.
“Although you will be placed in non-pay and non-duty status during the furlough, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires employees of the federal government who are furloughed or required to work during a lapse in appropriations to be compensated for the period of the lapse,” the notice said.
The Office of Management and Budget also directed federal agencies and departments to prepare reduction-in-force plans, threatening mass firings of federal workers if the shutdown continues. The office did not respond to a request for comment about the specifics of how that plan would be implemented.
The Office of Management and Budget did not respond to an email requesting comment on back pay and mass layoffs.
Contact Report for America corps member Jules Feeney at jfeeney@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.
Staff Photo by Jules Feeney / The IRS taxpayer assistance office on Uptain Road in Chattanooga was closed for business Oct. 8, 2025, the sixth day of a federal government shutdown.