Reports Claims Trump admin To Slash IRS Positions

By
Gregory McMullen
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is cutting thousands of probationary workers just as tax season kicks into high gear—a move that signals the Trump administration’s broader effort to drastically reshape the federal workforce. According to The Associated Press, these layoffs come in direct response to a new directive from the administration, requiring agencies to terminate most probationary employees who haven’t secured civil service protections.

And the scope of these cuts? Potentially massive. While the exact number remains unconfirmed, reports indicate that hundreds of thousands of federal workers could ultimately be affected.

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a much larger initiative spearheaded by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—the Elon Musk-backed agency tasked with eliminating waste and streamlining operations across the federal government. DOGE’s ambitious goal? Slashing $2 trillion from the national budget by cutting bloated programs and trimming down the federal workforce.

The timing of these layoffs is especially significant. With the 2025 tax season officially starting on January 27, IRS workers are under immense pressure to process more than 140 million tax returns. Yet, despite the agency’s claims of recent improvements—including shorter wait times and higher levels of customer service—the Trump administration is pushing ahead with the cuts.

Adding to the shakeup, Trump recently announced that all federal employees must return to in-person work by early February—or risk being fired. To ease the transition, the government extended a buyout offer, which has already been accepted by about 65,000 employees.

But one key exception applies: IRS workers involved in the 2025 tax season aren’t eligible for the buyout until after the taxpayer filing deadline. In other words, while broader government workforce reductions are moving full speed ahead, the IRS will maintain staffing levels just long enough to handle the filing season before deeper cuts potentially take hold.

This is a clear reversal of Biden’s expansion of the IRS under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That legislation, which allocated $80 billion in additional IRS funding, was marketed as a way to modernize the tax agency. But critics—including the House Oversight Committee—claimed that money was used to hire 87,000 new IRS agents with a focus on auditing middle-class Americans, not simply improving service.

Trump and Republican lawmakers have long vowed to roll back this expansion, arguing that an overpowered IRS disproportionately harms small businesses and working families. The latest cuts show that the administration is following through—not just with rhetoric, but with action.

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