The current presidential administration is sticking to its cost-cutting guns.
Things may not be especially chummy between President Donald Trump and the former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk these days — but it’s clear that the spirit of DOGE lives on in the Trump administration.
(For the unfamiliar, DOGE’s entire existence is for the purpose of cutting excess government spending and waste.)
And that doesn’t bode well for the Internal Revenue Service.
In a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration published Friday, it was revealed just how much the IRS has been downsized after former President Joe Biden’s administration tried to beef it up in his lone term.
The Washington Times summarized the report like this: “The administration has slashed the IRS workforce by nearly 26,000 people through buyouts and firings, marking a 25% reduction in staffing as President Trump works to reverse President Biden’s buildup at the tax agency.
“The cuts sliced through some of the most prominent IRS divisions, taking out 27% of the tax examiners and 26% of the revenue agents.”
The outlet added: “Information technology is shedding 23% of its workforce, and the management and analysis division will lose 28% of its staff.”
Specifically, the inspector general noted the following: “According to IRS records, 25,386 employees separated, took a DRP offer, or used some other incentive to leave. Another 294 employees were sent termination notices due to [Reduction in Force] actions. These departures represent 25 percent of the IRS’s workforce and impact certain business units more than others.”
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“Additionally, the separations impacted employees in certain positions (e.g., job series). For example, approximately 27 percent of tax examiners separated, while 26 percent of revenue agents separated,” the TIGTA report added.
The report explained: “Tax examiners are responsible for reviewing and processing federal tax returns to ensure compliance and accuracy. Revenue agents conduct examinations (audits) by reviewing financial records of individuals and businesses to verify what is reported.”
In short, there are a lot of changes coming to the IRS, largely associated with the department’s cost-cutting measures.
TIGTA did make clear that this report was “informational” only and that the organization played no role in any of the actual reductions.
“This report presents the results of our review to provide an update on the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to reduce its workforce,” wrote Deputy Inspector General for Inspections and Evaluations Nancy A. LaManna. “This report provides information about IRS workforce reductions resulting from the deferred resignation programs, retirements, and other separations.
“Our report is informational only. We made no recommendations.”
Despite these cuts, the IRS is still a well-staffed department by virtually any metric.
After these cuts are enacted, there will still be 77,000 employees at the IRS, including over 3,000 “probationary workers” who had returned to the office.
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