Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is drafting plans to cut its workforce by as much as half through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivised buyouts, according to two people familiar with the situation, said an AP report carried by livemint.com.
The layoffs, it said, are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
A reduction in force of tens of thousands of employees would render the IRS “dysfunctional,” said John Koskinen, a former IRS Commissioner. The federal tax collector employs roughly 90,000 workers total across the United States, according to the latest IRS data. People of colour make up 56 per cent of the IRS workforce, and women represent 65 per cent, said the AP report.
Already, roughly 7,000 probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service were laid off from the organisation in February. The organisation also offered IRS employees – along with almost all federal employees across the Government – “deferred resignation program” buyouts.
Earlier this month, however, the IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season were told that they would not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline. In addition to the planned layoffs, the Trump administration intends to lend IRS workers to the Department of Homeland Security to assist with immigration enforcement.
In a letter sent in February, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to borrow IRS workers to help with ongoing immigration crackdown efforts. Koskinen and six other former IRS Commissioners wrote in the New York Times earlier this month: “Aggressive reductions in the I.R.S.’s resources will only render our government less effective and less efficient in collecting the taxes Congress has imposed.” According to a White House memo sent to federal agencies in late February, agencies are to develop a report by March 13 on its reduction in force plans.
