Around 7,000 employees of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are set to get laid off beginning Thursday, as part of the Donald Trump administration’s intensified efforts to slash federal jobs through the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to a report by the Associated Press citing sources, 7,000 IRS workers in Washington as well as around the US are set to get fired, affecting probationary employees with roughly one year or less of service at the agency.
The US layoffs come despite IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season being told earlier this month that they would not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline.
According to latest IRS data, the tax collecting agency has roughly 90,000 employees total across the United States. Laying off 7,000 employees will mean that the IRS would lose nearly 10% of its workforce.
Racial minorities make up 56 per cent of the IRS workforce, and women represent 65 per cent.
IRS layoffs: Who will be affected?
Probationary workers with around one year or less of experience at the IRS are likely to be laid off, according to the AP report quoting the person, who was not authorised to disclose the plans and spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday. This largely includes employees in the compliance departments.
Compliance work includes ensuring that taxpayers are abiding by the tax code, filing their returns and paying their taxes, among other duties.
AP reported that it is not clear how these layoffs will affect the tax collection services during the ongoing year, as the IRS is tasked with this job. The revenue collector during the Joe Biden administration had marked high-wealth tax evaders for an additional stream of income to the US. As of 2024-end, the IRS collected $1.3 billion in back taxes from rich tax evaders of the US, which has a debt of $36 trillion.
Trump govt to borrow IRS employees for immigration enforcements
The IRS is set to temporarily lose even more employees as the Trump administration also intends to lend some workers to the Department of Homeland Security. These employees will help the agency with immigration enforcement.
In a letter sent earlier this month, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to borrow IRS workers to help with ongoing immigration crackdown efforts.
