The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is set to lay off thousands of probationary workers during the 2025 tax season, raising concerns about potential disruptions to tax processing and customer service.
At a Glance
- IRS plans to lay off thousands of probationary workers during the 2025 tax season
- Layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce
- Concerns grow over potential impacts on tax return processing and customer service
- Move comes amid existing challenges, including backlogs and staffing shortages
- Legal challenges have arisen, with 14 states suing the administration over the layoffs
Trump Administration Targets IRS Workforce
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to lay off thousands of probationary workers in the midst of the 2025 tax season, a move that has sparked concerns about potential disruptions to tax processing and customer service. This decision is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The IRS workforce had grown to approximately 100,000 under former President Joe Biden’s administration, including about 16,000 probationary workers. Now, the Office of Personnel Management has ordered all federal agencies to dismiss probationary employees who are not deemed essential or did not resign under a buyout program.
The timing of these layoffs has raised alarms about the IRS’s ability to handle the volume of tax returns during the busy filing season. Experts warn that the workforce reduction could lead to longer processing times for tax returns, delays in issuing refunds, and reduced capacity for customer service and fraud detection.
“They are trying to reduce numbers across the board with no analysis to the impact it will have on operations,” a source familiar with the impending layoffs told Reuters.
Does anyone actually even care about that?
The IRS is already grappling with existing challenges, including backlogs from previous tax seasons and staffing shortages. These issues have led to reassignment of employees and extended processing times for various tax-related matters, including identity theft cases and Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims.
The administration’s approach to federal workforce reduction has not gone unchallenged. Attorneys General from 14 states have filed lawsuits against the administration, arguing that DOGE’s authority violates the U.S. Constitution. They claim the department has been granted “virtually unchecked power” over federal agencies.
As previously reported by Kiplinger, abusive promoters advertised the ability to claim the ERC to unsuspecting employers, leading to a surplus of ERC fraud and erroneous claims.
The political debate surrounding the IRS workforce has intensified, with Republicans criticizing the agency’s growth under the Biden administration. They argue that the increased personnel could lead to harassment of middle-class taxpayers. On the other hand, Democrats have defended the agency’s expansion as necessary for improving service and ensuring fair tax collection from wealthy individuals and corporations.
Do the Democrats not realize that most of the country flat out disagrees with them?
