Trump administration fires 6,700 IRS workers in middle of tax season

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Feb 20, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

An estimated 6,700 IRS workers were fired Thursday, smack in the middle of tax season as the agency prepares to deal with 140 million tax returns.

The purge largely targeted newer “probationary” employees who have fewer protections than long-term workers, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump and his top campaign donor, Elon Musk, have taken a slash-and-burn approach to running the federal government since Trump took office one month ago. The duo promised to cut costs and have followed through by firing thousands of government workers and offering buyouts to many more.

But Thursday’s move to can IRS employees, specifically tax collectors, will likely cost the government money, according to experts.

“For every $1 that the IRS spends on high-end enforcement activity, the agency collects $12 in uncollected taxes,” Yale Law professor Natasha Sarin told NPR.

Instead, cutting back on IRS personnel will undercut the agency’s ability to investigate complicated tax schemes, often undertaken by some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens.

The cuts “will ensure that the IRS is not going after the wealthy and is only an agency that’s really focused on the low income. It’s a travesty,” University of Pittsburgh tax law professor Philip Hackney, a former IRS lawyer, told Reuters.

While he was in office, former President Joe Biden made IRS funding a priority. The agency added thousands of jobs during his four years in charge.

But even Trump’s former IRS commissioner, Chuck Rettig, criticized the decision.

“An underfunded IRS significantly benefits unidentified, noncompliant taxpayers at the direct expense of compliant taxpayers,” Rettig, who led the agency from 2018-2022, wrote on LinkedIn.