COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Thousands of Internal Revenue Service employees were fired on Thursday, most of which were with the agency for one year or less.

This comes as the Trump administration has worked to get rid of probationary workers in federal agencies. The layoffs were expected to include nearly 7,000 IRS employees, and they come right in the middle of the busy tax season in the US. Jim Fifield, a local Certified Public Accountant, said there may be some impacts from the loss of workers.

“Those who mail returns in, that may be delayed because there’s not going to be anyone to open the mail. If you’re trying to correspond, write letters or even reach the IRS there may be some backlog there,” said Fifield.

But Fifield said that anyone who is filing their tax returns electronically should not have any delays or inconveniences. “If I have to try to call the IRS this afternoon and the person I was going to talk to is no longer there, I’m going to get a lot longer wait time. But for 90 percent of the work we’re doing right now probably will not be affected,” said Fifield.

At this point, Fifield said it’s unclear whether these layoffs are permanent.

In addition to the planned layoffs, the Trump administration intends to lend IRS workers to the Department of Homeland Security to assist with immigration enforcement. In a letter sent earlier this month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to borrow IRS workers to help with ongoing immigration crackdown efforts.