IRS to lay off thousands of employees as soon as next week: report

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reported preparing to begin mass layoffs as early as next week as the Trump administration works to dramatically cut government excess and waste, three people familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ordered that government agencies terminate probationary employees earlier this week, which are employees who are relatively new at their jobs. The outlet noted that thousands of IRS employees will be affected by the layoffs, but an exact figure was not known on Friday.

Some have expressed concerns over personnel cuts in the middle of the tax season, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the department that oversees the IRS, would limit changes until the end of the tax season. Bessent said, "So I don’t imagine anything’s going to go on at the IRS until then or beyond. We’re in the middle of the tax-filing season right now."

This comes after President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, would be looking into the IRS as part of their sweeping audits of agencies and departments. "I think that the Internal Revenue Service is going to be looked at just like everybody else. Just about everybody’s going to be looked at."

Trump has said that new IRS hires from the Biden administration could be reallocated to assisting with the southern border, as the Trump administration looks to get a handle on the open border left by Biden. "They hired - were trying to hire 88,000 new workers to go with you, and we're in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we move them to the border,” Trump said. “I think we're going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they're so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border."