Donald Trump Photo: Pou / Zuma Press / Profimedia
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US has announced massive job discounts, reducing its workforce by up to 25%. This will affect almost 20,000 employees.
These redundancies are part of the broader strategy of the Donald Trump administration to reduce the federal bureaucracy, an initiative implemented through the Department for government efficiency led by Elon Musk
The administration has previously closed the agencies, fired employees without protection of the public service and offered redemptions through a “delayed resignation program”, writes Washington Post, citing obtained records and discussions with people familiar with the plans.
The Agency said that it will eliminate the Office for Civil and Compliance Rights, holidays, leaving about 130 employees from a division responsible for protecting taxpayers against discrimination in the Fiscal Code, audits and investigations. The remaining employees there will be transferred to other departments.
The reduction comes under the conditions in which the agency has already lost several directors and thousands of employees, including agents that audit tax returns during the fiscal season. He is also part of a wider plan of President Donald Trump and the cost reduction team of Elon Musk, the US Doge Service, to reduce the federal government.
“This action is taken to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS,” they were told in an e-mail to the employees.
A spokesman for the Treasury Department said that the discounts “will be part of – and will be determined by – the improvements of the processes and technological innovations that will allow the IRS to collect income and to serve the taxpayers more efficiently.” The department previously stated that his policy is not to attach names to the statements of the spokesperson.
IRS did not respond immediately to a comment request.
The reduction has aroused concerns among fiscal officials that the government could be awakened by a sudden decrease in tax revenues this year, as tax fraudsters see opportunities to take advantage of the IRS reduction.
Over 4,000 employees accepted delayed resignation offers earlier this year. Another 7,000 trainee employees – those who generally work for the agency for less than a year – have been available in February, although some are reintegrated based on court decisions. At least some of these employees were told that they should expect to return to work on April 14, according to the emails seen by The Post.
About 50 people working on cyber security and IT were fired last week, according to two people familiar with the availability. An office that supervises the modernization efforts of the Agency was closed, and the interim commissioner, the head of human resources, the interim general counselor and several top deputies have resigned or have been relegated.
