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 layoffs began on Friday and will initially hit the IRS’s office of civil rights and compliance, which is set to be slashed by 75 per cent. Fewer than 200 people currently work in the unit, which was previously known as the office of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Remaining staff will reportedly be absorbed into the agency’s office of chief counsel.
The job cuts are part of a wider move by the Trump administration to scale back the federal bureaucracy. Under the guidance of billionaire Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency, workforce has been reduced from many agencies along with plans to dismantle some more like the department of education.
Many have also been offered buyouts through what the administration is calling a “deferred resignation program.”
A treasury department spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said on Friday that the staff reductions were linked to broader efforts to modernise the agency and these changes are part of larger process improvements and tech innovations that will allow the IRS to operate more effectively.
Rolling back Biden-era hiring and consolidating support functions are intended to more efficiently serve the public, the spokesperson said in a statement, 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.
The layoffs began on Friday and will initially hit the IRS’s office of civil rights and compliance, which is set to be slashed by 75 per cent. Fewer than 200 people currently work in the unit, which was previously known as the office of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Remaining staff will reportedly be absorbed into the agency’s office of chief counsel.
The job cuts are part of a wider move by the Trump administration to scale back the federal bureaucracy. Under the guidance of billionaire Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency, workforce has been reduced from many agencies along with plans to dismantle some more like the department of education.
Many have also been offered buyouts through what the administration is calling a “deferred resignation program.”
A treasury department spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said on Friday that the staff reductions were linked to broader efforts to modernise the agency and these changes are part of larger process improvements and tech innovations that will allow the IRS to operate more effectively.
Rolling back Biden-era hiring and consolidating support functions are intended to more efficiently serve the public, the spokesperson said in a statement, 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.
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