Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, is asking the new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to delay planned layoffs of nearly 2,000 people at the tax agency's Andover processing plant for at least three years.

A year ago the IRS announced it would trim the work force at the facility in 2009 as more taxpayers switch to electronic filing, reducing the need for the workers who sift through reams of paper returns in Andover, which is part of the 5th Congressional District represented by Tsongas.

But Tsongas said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman that the employees in Andover are still needed because fewer people than expected are e-filing their returns. The letter was also signed by 6th District Congressman John Tierney and other members of the Massachusetts delegation, along with New Hampshire Democrats Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter.

"The 2009 target date was based on a projection that 80 percent of all federal tax returns would be filed electronically by 2007," said the letter. "This transition, however, has not occurred as quickly as projected. As the IRS Oversight Board's annual report to Congress for 2006 shows, only 54 percent of tax returns were filed electronically in 2006.

"The Oversight Board itself recommends postponing the target date for reducing the number of Andover workers to 2012, and we urge you to adopt this recommendation."

IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley issued a one-sentence statement: "We are aware of the letter, we will be responding to it and we will continue to do our best to keep the employees and their representatives fully informed as this process unfolds."

Tsongas, however, said in an interview with The Eagle-Tribune that the original reorganization plan was 10 years old and a lot has changed since then.

"The goals have not been met" for electronic filing, she said. "My goal is to encourage the IRS to reassess the reorganization plan."

The people most affected by the changes are seasonal employees who work at the agency's Andover tax return center during the busiest time of year, roughly January to June. Those workers make $10 to $14 an hour, depending on their employment level. Some work during tax season year after year.

For years, the IRS collected paper returns in 10 facilities across the country. Now, seven locations are used, including Andover. The IRS has decided to consolidate paper return collections to just three cities: Fresno, Calif.; Austin, Texas; and Kansas City, Mo.

Nationally, paper filings have dropped from nearly 80 million in 2003 to about 60 million last year. Meanwhile, electronic returns have jumped from 52 million in 2003 to more than 72 million last year. That upward trend for so-called e-filers is expected to continue in coming years.

Similar pleas have been made in the past to save positions at the Andover facility, which employs 5,000 people, 4,000 of whom are in a union. Last year, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., joined a group of legislators, including Tsongas' predecessor, Martin Meehan, in asking for a delay in the layoff plan.

This time, Tsongas said, the situation is a little different.

"We have a new commissioner, who just took over the IRS in the past month," she said. "I'm the new kid on the block. It just seems like an opportune moment to make the case for the Andover site. ...

"For me, it's about keeping the jobs we have here and providing new jobs," she said.

The letter also said it would make more sense for the IRS to retrain the Andover workers for other tasks rather than lay them off.

"In Andover we have highly skilled employees with great institutional knowledge who understand the complexity of our tax returns," she said. "They could be retrained to deal with e-processing, debt services and debt collections."

She said the IRS spent $75 million to pay private debt collectors who collected only $35 million in federal tax debts. "And we got a lot of complaints, especially from the elderly, over the techniques they used," Tsongas said.

Downsizing of the magnitude being proposed by the IRS would have a "tremendous impact on jobs in this district and in New Hampshire."

Tsongas said she was prompted to write the letter after visiting the IRS center a few weeks ago, where she spoke with employees and heard first-hand about the impact the cuts would have on the unionized work force.