Over 46,000 IRS employees will be required to come into work without pay in order to begin preparations for the upcoming tax season, which begins Jan. 28, the IRS confirmed.

“We are committed to ensuring that taxpayers receive their refunds notwithstanding the government shutdown. I appreciate the hard work of the employees and their commitment to the taxpayers during this period,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a Jan. 7 news release.

The number required to return to work constitutes just over half of the IRS’s 80,265-person workforce, and primarily includes positions needed to handle budget matters related to the lapse in appropriations, perform services necessary for the Social Security Administration, ensure the payment of tax refunds or ensure the safety of human life and government property.

Some employees may also be required to come in temporarily to perform necessary shutdown activities.

Employees not required to come into work under the IRS plan are those that process non-disaster relief transcripts, perform headquarters and administrative functions, perform audit functions, handle non-automated collections, provide legal counsel, perform taxpayer services during non-filing season, perform IT functions, and handle research and development activities.

But the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents approximately 70,000 IRS workers, has argued that the agency shouldn’t be able to force workers to come in and perform regular duties with only an IOU in compensation.

“There is no doubt the IRS needs to get ready for the 2019 filing season that starts Jan. 28, and IRS employees want to work. But the hard, cold reality is that they’ve already missed a paycheck and soon they’ll be asked to work for free for as long as the shutdown lasts,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon in a news release.

NTEU, alongside the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, recently lost a U.S. District Court of the District of Colombia ruling in which they tried to prevent agencies from calling in workers without ensuring timely paychecks.

Those IRS employees that are called in to work full time to prepare for filing season will likely have to do so without a paycheck until the end of the shutdown.

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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