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WaPo: Layoffs to hit IRS as DOGE targets tax collections [View all]
WaPo - (archive: https://archive.ph/WiYMU ) Layoffs to hit IRS as DOGE targets tax collections
The cuts are expected to at least partially reverse the Biden administration’s efforts to beef up the agency.
February 14, 2025 at 3:21 p.m. EST
By Jeff Stein, Hannah Natanson and Jacob Bogage
The Trump administration is expected to begin laying off thousands of employees at the Internal Revenue Service, six people briefed on the matter said, as billionaire Elon Musk’s team begins to target tax collections.
Treasury officials have discussed laying off roughly 9,000 employees still in their probationary period as part of broader dismissals across the government of these recently hired workers, according to the six people who requested anonymity to speak about internal conversations. That number could not be immediately confirmed, and spokespeople both for the IRS and Treasury declined to comment. The cuts could start as soon as Friday.
The layoffs are likely targeting tax collection, several of the people briefed on the matter said. Indeed, associates of Musk’s team begin meeting high-ranking IRS officials about what could prove dramatic changes to the tax agency. Gavin Kliger, a software engineer now working at the IRS, met with Ken Corbin, the IRS’s chief of taxpayer services, and Heather Maloy, the agency’s top enforcement official, during his first day at the agency’s headquarters Thursday, according to several of the people familiar with the meetings.
Republicans have long aimed to shrink the tax agency and were particularly incensed by the Biden administration’s push to hire thousands of new IRS agents to increase tax enforcement and collections. The cuts to federal personnel are likely to weaken the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster the IRS, though to what extent remains uncertain.
The tax agency grew by about 10 percent last year, as its ranks swelled from roughly 90,000 employees in fiscal year 2023 to 100,000 employees this fiscal year. The IRS has said publicly that personnel critical to the tax filing season are ineligible for the “deferred resignation” plan that encouraged federal personnel to quit. That has fueled speculation that the cuts to IRS personnel will be concentrated among the agency’s tax collection staff, which could reduce the amount of revenue brought into federal coffers even as Musk calls for a reduced deficit.
/snip
The cuts are expected to at least partially reverse the Biden administration’s efforts to beef up the agency.
February 14, 2025 at 3:21 p.m. EST
By Jeff Stein, Hannah Natanson and Jacob Bogage
The Trump administration is expected to begin laying off thousands of employees at the Internal Revenue Service, six people briefed on the matter said, as billionaire Elon Musk’s team begins to target tax collections.
Treasury officials have discussed laying off roughly 9,000 employees still in their probationary period as part of broader dismissals across the government of these recently hired workers, according to the six people who requested anonymity to speak about internal conversations. That number could not be immediately confirmed, and spokespeople both for the IRS and Treasury declined to comment. The cuts could start as soon as Friday.
The layoffs are likely targeting tax collection, several of the people briefed on the matter said. Indeed, associates of Musk’s team begin meeting high-ranking IRS officials about what could prove dramatic changes to the tax agency. Gavin Kliger, a software engineer now working at the IRS, met with Ken Corbin, the IRS’s chief of taxpayer services, and Heather Maloy, the agency’s top enforcement official, during his first day at the agency’s headquarters Thursday, according to several of the people familiar with the meetings.
Republicans have long aimed to shrink the tax agency and were particularly incensed by the Biden administration’s push to hire thousands of new IRS agents to increase tax enforcement and collections. The cuts to federal personnel are likely to weaken the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster the IRS, though to what extent remains uncertain.
The tax agency grew by about 10 percent last year, as its ranks swelled from roughly 90,000 employees in fiscal year 2023 to 100,000 employees this fiscal year. The IRS has said publicly that personnel critical to the tax filing season are ineligible for the “deferred resignation” plan that encouraged federal personnel to quit. That has fueled speculation that the cuts to IRS personnel will be concentrated among the agency’s tax collection staff, which could reduce the amount of revenue brought into federal coffers even as Musk calls for a reduced deficit.
/snip
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