Behind the Curtain: What It's Really Like to Work at the IRS

Before I became an entrepreneur and launched ExFed Tax, I spent years serving America's taxpayers at IRS in national roles, working policy, compliance, and tax enforcement.

I'll tell you something most people choose to ignore or rarely consider: IRS employees are some of the most hard-working, dedicated civil servants you’ll ever meet. They're also a group of folks that have each other's back - no matter if you're in the same operating division, grade, time in service or hell even in the same State. Nationwide teams of diverse (whoops.... we weren't allowed to use that word) multifunctional teams worked with ease. They're also an unjustly easy target for those with political ambition.

The mission of the IRS is straightforward—enforce the law with integrity and fairness. But actually doing that job is anything but simple.

During my time at the Service, I witnessed career employees regularly work 12-hour days, no breaks, no lunch, including weekends, all to meet tight deadlines set by Treasury, Congress, a neurotic executive, or all three combined.

Shutdowns or threat of shutdowns that diverted our work to an exercise in futility because Congress couldn't play nicely... hell even cooperative in the sandbox. These aren’t just paper-pushers. These are analysts, investigators, attorneys, data experts, and auditors who care deeply about the country and believe in the power of public service. The level of expertise within the IRS is astonishing, but the distractions not caused or created within slowed efficiency.

Many of us loved the work itself—solving complex problems, improving systems, promoting fairness, advocating for taxpayers. But somewhere along the way, it became harder to do the work well if at all.

The culture shifted. The priorities changed over and over and over again. Tax laws changed over and over and over again without warning, notice, or opportuniy to weigh in. Each new administration or other political appointees brought new marching orders, often conflicting with the long-term projects we knew would actually move the needle. Congress abdicated their responsibility to write the regulations, much less even read the Bills. Political heat rose, public trust eroded, and every headline turned our day jobs into battlegrounds. All the while, the work kept piling up, people were waving bu-bye (retiring), there was a 10-year gap in hiring between experienced individuals and new hires. Then all of a sudden with a chainsaw - those happy, new hires that took years to recruit and hire, years of full-time employees to process, other agency support with background investigations was gone. What happened to their work? Guess.

It was exhausting—and disheartening. for. everyone.

I thrived in the technical work and policy leadership, but the ability to actually get things done became more and more obstructed by bureaucracy, image management, and short-term wins.

So if you ever find yourself frustrated when calling the IRS, I invite you to cool your jets. That voice on the other end? They’re often overworked, under-resourced, and still showing up because they believe in doing the right thing.

Be kind.

What people really don't know is how very fragile the system is.

From accepting mail and processing it through the pipeline to document retentions and so on. This very fragile system worked. Could it have been improved... yes! However, it is nearly impossible to improve when the pendulem swings visciously through recent current events. Millions of dollars spent on fruitful projects gone, progress being made to benefit taxpayers... taken down with a chainsaw... all in the interest of politics.

During COVID, mail mountain (or tractor trailer park of paper), even IRS executives ditched their suits and joined the front lines—opening envelopes, unstapling paper, and bonding over paper cuts. It was old-school grit meets government precision. One unexpected hero? A roll of tape. Scanners were rejecting any page with 3-hole punches, so employees were taping every hole on every page. Then one curious IT exec asked, “What if we just cover the first hole?” Boom—problem solved. Thousands of hours saved with a single strip of tape. It was classic IRS: meticulous, thoughtful, and quietly brilliant. Turns out, when the going gets tough, the IRS get resourceful.

I share that story because it would have taken YEARS to update the scanners, but one comment during conversations with the employees took seconds. It's the people actually doing the work that knows the real story not the lawmakers above.

Now, what 5 things did you accomplish last week.