WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will lay off around 6,700 employees today, about 7% of its workforce, during the peak of the tax-filing season. It is part of President Donald Trump’s larger effort to reduce the size of the federal government, spearheaded by Elon Musk, his lead campaign contributor and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader.
The cuts mainly fall on probationary workers, who have limited civil service protections. Some of these workers were brought in during the administration of former President Joe Biden to improve tax enforcement and customer service. Even with the cuts, the IRS will keep workers necessary for processing tax returns to reduce disruptions during filing season.
This move is part of a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, ordering agencies to fire more recent hires in an effort by the administration to streamline government functions. The IRS, which ballooned to nearly 100,000 workers during the previous administration, is disproportionately affected by the reductions in its operations.
Republican officials have embraced the shrinking, seeing it as a step toward lessening what they see as an overly large federal workforce. Republicans say that a smaller IRS will mean less government overreach and more effective taxpayer spending.
However, critics express concern that reducing IRS staff during the critical tax-filing period could lead to delays in processing returns and issuing refunds. The agency anticipates over 140 million tax returns by the April 15 deadline, and diminished staffing may hinder its ability to manage this volume effectively.
The IRS has not made an official announcement about the layoffs. As the situation unfolds, taxpayers are encouraged to file their returns on time and use online tools to track the status of their refunds.
