Beyond Doomsday:
The IRS Has a Plan—And It Survives the Apocalypse
“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin
You can’t turn on the TV or scroll social media without someone mentioning World War 3. I’ve had a strange fascination with nuclear war since I was a kid. That led me to read obsessively about it—and I’m always up for a good apocalyptic movie.
Mix that with a dark sense of humor and a dash of doomscrolling, and you get this article.
While many might assume a global catastrophe like nuclear war would render taxes irrelevant, the U.S. government—specifically the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—has meticulously planned for the continuation of tax collection even in the most dire circumstances.
Yep, that’s right—even in the smoldering aftermath of global devastation, the IRS intends to keep collecting taxes. Enter the Continuity Operations Plan, or COOP.
The IRS's Continuity Operations Plan: A Blueprint for Doomsday Taxation
The IRS’s Continuity Operations Plan (COOP) spans dozens of pages and details how the agency intends to resume functions within 12 hours of a national emergency. (This is covered under the Internal Revenue Manual §10.6.1)
At its core is a tiered system that prioritizes what must continue to keep the government operational—even if civilization is wobbling on its last legs.
Tier 1: Mission Essential Functions (MEFs) & Essential Supporting Activities (ESAs)
These are the functions that must go on, no matter what:
Processing Tax Remittances – receiving payments and depositing them with the Treasury.
Processing Tax Returns – sorting and archiving e-filed and paper returns.
Processing Tax Refunds – verifying and issuing refunds, including offsets.
To keep these rolling, the IRS also lists Essential Supporting Activities (ESAs)—critical internal operations like:
Physical security
IT operations
Legal services
Payroll
Communications and facilities management
Tier 2: Business Process Priorities (BPPs)
These are still important but not mission-critical.
Think:
Taxpayer assistance
Tax fraud litigation
Online services
Appeals and compliance activities
They’re often resumed through relocation.
Tier 3: Deferred Business Processes (DBPs)
These can wait until the dust (or fallout) settles. They don’t have pressing legal deadlines or direct ties to core functions.
Leadership & Location: The Command Chain That Survives the Blast
The IRS, like all federal agencies, maintains a hierarchy of leadership teams and designated fallback locations to ensure continuity of government. According to federal continuity standards, the agency must resume critical operations within 12 hours of an emergency.
Teams are assigned by role—not individual name—and given pre-delegated authority to make decisions under pressure. Though full details are not publicly disclosed, internal continuity teams like the Executive Leadership Team and their alternates are trained and briefed annually on their roles in an emergency.
Should relocation be necessary, designated safe sites equipped with emergency amenities—yes, including cots and showers—are ready to host essential IRS personnel tasked with keeping tax operations running, even if the world outside is in chaos.
Because even in the apocalypse, payroll still needs to run—and someone’s got to be in charge.
Raven Rock, Mount Weather & Mount Pony: Taxing from the Bunker
The IRS’s doomsday playbook doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s part of a sprawling federal strategy known as Continuity of Government (COG), a legacy of Cold War-era fears that still lingers in concrete and steel beneath America’s mountains.
Raven Rock — The Pentagon’s Underground Twin
Built in the early 1950s, Raven Rock—aka Site R—is a massive Cold War-era underground complex near the Maryland–Pennsylvania border. It was designed to serve as a backup Pentagon and includes:
Police department
Fire department
Medical clinics
Sleeping quarters
Communications infrastructure
Office space for up to 5,000 federal personnel
In theory, it’s a place where the highest levels of military and civilian leadership—including Treasury and the IRS—could relocate to maintain command, communications, and yes, tax collection, if D.C. were destroyed.
Mount Weather — The Shadow Capitol
Located in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is perhaps the most famous U.S. doomsday facility—and the most secretive.
Run by FEMA and originally built in the 1950s, it’s equipped to house top government officials, including members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and cabinet members. It’s been referenced in fiction (The X-Files, Deep Impact, Designated Survivor) and declassified documents.
Its actual capacity and inner workings remain classified, but we know this much:
It has its own power plant, water reservoir, and security force
It serves as a central hub for re-establishing federal authority after a catastrophe
It played a role in 9/11 continuity activation protocols
While the IRS doesn’t publicly name its relocation sites, it’s not hard to imagine certain essential personnel making their way to Mount Weather.
Mount Pony — Cold Hard Cash for the End of the World
Built during the Cold War in Culpeper, Virginia, Mount Pony was the Federal Reserve’s answer to economic collapse. Its vaults held over $2 billion in currency, much of it in $2 bills (which were rarely used and easily traceable in a post-disaster economy).
The plan? Restart the economy with ready cash and restore market confidence.
Turns out, when the bombs drop, it’s good to have a bunker full of $2 bills.
Mount Pony has since been decommissioned and now houses the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus, but its existence adds an eerie footnote to America’s readiness to preserve not just survival—but structure.
A Glimpse Into the Past: Cold War Origins
Government continuity planning began in the early days of the Cold War. The dream? Evacuate cities. Make nuclear war survivable.
The reality? The nukes got too fast, too strong, and too many.
So the focus shifted from saving everyone to saving essential functions—and that includes the IRS.
In fact, a 1982 IRS memo floated a 20% national sales tax as a stopgap if traditional income tax collection broke down.
Let that sink in: amid radioactive rubble, the government still wants you to pony up 20% at checkout—for a loaf of irradiated bread, perhaps.
Final Thoughts: Because Death Alone Isn’t Certain Enough
While the idea of paying taxes after nuclear annihilation sounds absurd, it reflects just how far the government is willing to go to preserve control and keep revenue flowing—even after civilization crumbles.
So if the mushroom clouds rise... don’t forget to file your tax return.
The government still wants its cut—even if you're filing from a fallout shelter.
So, do you have a business continuity plan?
OR
Have a favorite apocalyptic movie or book?