Summary
IRS employees who accepted the Trump administration’s buyout offer have been told they must continue working until May 15 because their roles are deemed “essential.”
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had offered voluntary resignations and warned of future downsizing for those who stayed.
Uncertainty now surrounds the offer’s implementation, sparking frustration among employees.
The National Treasury Employees Union criticized the move, arguing it proves IRS workers are vital, especially during tax season, and that federal job cuts risk harming public services.
Good time to remind people to file your tax returns as soon as possible if you’re expecting a refund, and delay your return as long as humanly possible with extensions if you’re expecting a bill.
Just to add full context, if you owe money and fill an extension till October you could have to pay a 25% penalty on what you owe.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-reminds-taxpayers-an-extension-to-file-is-not-an-extension-to-pay-taxes
I was just thinking about this myself. These fuck sticks are going to break everything, and I have probably $10k coming back to me. I’m also thinking about changing my deductions on my paycheck so I’m not overpaying next year. I do it as a sort of forced savings account which I know is a bad idea in that it’s giving the government a free loan essentially, but I also know I’m not a saver, so I do it to get a nice windfall every April. I don’t trust this government to hold my money for a year.
Definitely change your deductions ASAP. Never loan the government free money, because you could be earning your own interest on that money and come out ahead.
Consider setting up a savings account at your bank or credit union that allows automatic scheduled transfers. Set up a transfer that’s scheduled for every paycheck date that is a couple hundred dollars so you don’t even have to think about it. Then every 6mo or so, take what you have in that savings account and put it into a CD so it earns real interest and not the .05% crap most savings accounts provide (and also time locks it so you dont “accidentally” spend it.) That’s the bare minimum.
If you have a employer sponsored 401k or similar retirement account, increase your roth IRA post-tax deductions. I wouldn’t put all your savings into it though, because it’s not accessible cash in case of emergency- but at least put enough in to have something earning ROI, or to take advantage of an employer safe harbor match.
The cents of interest is not worth losing access to a non-accessible savings account.
Your advice is great for someone with lots of disposable income, not great for those living pay check to pay check.
What’s the difference between a time locked CD and paying excessive tax withholding to the government that you don’t get back until the following year? Its not available either way.
I only ever buy CD’s 6 to 12mo at a time, you arent required to buy some long term 36 or 48mo CD.
The point I am making is that OP apparently has that extra income but is not utilizing it right. He’s loaning it to the government for free if he gets a 10k tax refund yearly, that’s actual insanity. No properly set tax withholding should ever have a refund more than $500-1k.
Hell, 10k in a 12mo CD right now is an extra $450 in your pocket yearly. Rather than loaning it to the government for free, you can make some side cash with it. Plus he can fine tune his savings rate to be more comfortable for the rest of the year rather than waiting for that refund check to breathe easy.
“Non-accessible savings account”? What kind of savings account are you using?
I think they were specifically referring to “CD” account, which generally speaking pays more interest than a standard savings account but requires a commitment where you cannot access the funds for a fixed amount of time 6 months, 12 months, etc)
Ahh
I find it just too convenient to have the extra couple grand once a year, it normally ends up coming in when I’m out of work anyways so saving it is pretty hard