IRS announces it will shut down tax return processing center in Downtown Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Thousands of workers may lose their jobs after the IRS announced it will shut down its tax return processing center in Downtown Fresno.

In an email Wednesday, employees learned operations will cease following the 2021 tax season. Around 3,000 of the center's 5,700 full-time and seasonal employees will be laid off. While the IRS will work to reassign others to surviving centers.

Along with budget cuts, the IRS commissioner said the popularity of electronic tax filing was a major reason for the shutdown. Two other centers across the country will suffer the same fate.

The Fresno center opened in 1972 and the commissioner said other IRS operations will continue.