According to records obtained by The Washington Post, the Internal Revenue Service is set to lose up to 25 percent of its workforce, or around 20,000 jobs, in layoffs starting Friday, thanks to the efforts of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE.
In addition, the agency announced on Friday that it would be eliminating its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance, which will result in 130 employees being let go and the closure of a division that works to protect taxpayers from discrimination in the tax code and audits.
The move makes the IRS the latest victim of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has slashed jobs across the federal government, including at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Defense Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the United States Postal Service.
The news wasn’t entirely unexpected, as the IRS has already lost several executives and thousands of employees, many of whom came from the agency’s enforcement and collections division.
Prior to this week’s cuts, an office overseeing the modernization of the IRS was shuttered, and the acting commissioner, acting general counsel, human resources chief, and several other high-level employees have been let go.
In January, the IRS employed around 100,000 people, but more than 4,000 IRS employees accepted deferred resignation offers earlier this year, while 7000 employees on probation were laid off in February. The probationary employees are now being reinstated as the result of a court order.
An email seen by the Post claimed, “This action is being taken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS,” echoing the language used by Trump and Musk since Trump’s return to the White House.
The layoffs are taking place during tax season, which ends on April 15, raising concerns that the move could result in a drop in tax revenue as bad actors seek to take advantage of the depleted workforce.
