The US internal revenue service ( IRS ) has started laying off staff as part of sweeping job cuts that could see up to 20, 000 employees, around a quarter of its entire workforce, lose their jobs, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The cuts began on Friday and will immediately hit the IRS’s department of civil rights and adherence, which is set to be slashed by 75 per share. Fewer than 200 people now work in the product, which was formerly known as the workplace of collateral, diversity, and addition. Remaining workers will presumably be absorbed into the company’s business of chief counsel.
The task cuts are part of a wider move by the Trump presidency to scale back the national government. Under the direction of businessman Elon Musk’s department of government performance, workplace has been reduced from several companies along with strategies to destroy some more like the department of education.
Some have also been offered buyouts through what the leadership is calling a “deferred withdrawal program”.
A government department spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, said on Friday that the staff reductions were linked to broader attempts to modernise the company and these alterations are part of larger approach improvements and technical innovations that will allow the IRS to operate more effectively.
Rolling again Biden-era selecting and consolidating support capabilities are intended to more effectively serve the public, the spokesperson said in a speech, quoted by AP.
The IRS had already begun cutting its workforce in February, when around 7, 000 probationary employees, those with a year or less at the agency, were informed they would be losing their jobs. However, a federal judge later ruled that these workers must be reinstated.
In March, IRS staff involved in processing the 2025 tax season were told they wouldn’t be allowed to take any buyout offers until after the key tax filing deadline of 15 April.
