IRS will cease public operations for 5 days due to budget cuts

If you were looking forward to a nice chat with an Internal Revenue Service agent on May 24, you are sadly out of luck.

Ditto for June 14, July 5, July 22 and Aug. 30. The tax agency will be closed to the public and almost all employees will be furloughed on those days.

That means the federal employees will get more three-day weekends -- but without pay.

Assistance the IRS typically offers taxpayers on the telephone and in person at its offices will be unavailable on those days.

PHOTOS: The five tallest buildings in L.A.

The news came Friday in an internal IRS memo from acting commissioner Steven Miller, Bloomberg News reported. The agency may close two more days in August and September if it is deemed necessary,

“We came to a decision that balances our primary mission to serve the taxpayers and considers the effect on employees,” Miller wrote. “We settled on having uniform furlough dates for everyone and closing down agency operations entirely. This way, the IRS can gain additional cost savings on utilities and other services in our work locations.”

The furloughs are to accommodate the automatic federal government budget cuts known as the sequester, which took effect March 1 after Congress and President Obama failed to agree on an alternative austerity plan.

ALSO:

IRS will pay whistle-blowers less because of federal budget cuts

Los Angeles, San Francisco top cities for tax dodgers, study says

Owner of marijuana stores pleads guilty to $25-million scheme