A senior official at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) informed staff on Thursday that approximately 6,000 employees will be laid off, accounting for about 6% of the agency’s workforce. The decision comes amid the peak tax filing season.
The layoffs are part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to shrink the federal government, impacting banking regulators, forestry workers, and thousands of other government employees. Spearheading this initiative is billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s largest campaign donor.
During the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, Argentine President Javier Milei handed Musk a chainsaw, symbolizing radical government spending cuts. “This is for bureaucracy,” Musk declared.
Labor unions have filed multiple lawsuits to halt the mass layoffs, but a Washington judge ruled on Thursday that the terminations could proceed.
Targeting IRS Expansion Under Biden
Christy Armstrong, the IRS employment director, reportedly grew emotional while informing staff of the layoffs. The total number of job losses is expected to reach 6,700, primarily affecting employees hired under former President Joe Biden’s administration. Biden’s expansion of the IRS aimed to increase tax collection from the wealthy, a move Republicans opposed, arguing it would disproportionately burden middle-class Americans.
The IRS, which had around 80,000 employees before Biden took office in 2021, grew to approximately 100,000 under his tenure. Independent budget analysts had projected that increased staffing would help reduce trillion-dollar deficits.
“This will shift the IRS away from pursuing the wealthy and make it an agency that primarily targets lower-income earners,” said Philip Hackney, a tax law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and former IRS attorney.
Widespread Government Job Cuts
The layoffs affect tax agents, customer service representatives, dispute resolution specialists, and IT staff across all 50 states. The IRS is proceeding cautiously with workforce reductions, given the ongoing tax season, with over 140 million filings expected before the April 15 deadline.
The Trump administration’s broader federal job cuts have targeted newer employees with less job security. The White House is also preparing to fire leaders of the U.S. Postal Service and integrate the independent agency into the Commerce Department, according to The Washington Post.
At the Kansas City IRS office, recently hired employees found their computer access restricted, except for email, which was used to deliver layoff notices. Shannon Ellis, a local union leader, warned that these cuts could impact the collection of federal revenue, which funds essential government programs.
Musk’s Role in Reshaping Government
Republicans have welcomed the cuts, arguing that the federal government is bloated and inefficient. Trump’s team is also targeting agencies regulating large corporations, including Musk’s ventures—SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink.
A division within the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which oversees autonomous vehicle standards—a key area for Tesla—will reportedly lose nearly half of its staff. The government efficiency team led by Musk has also canceled $8.5 billion in contracts, including foreign aid programs and diversity training initiatives.
Trump and Musk aim to cut at least $1 trillion from the $6.7 trillion federal budget. However, the president has assured that popular entitlement programs will remain untouched.
Democrats argue that Trump is overstepping his constitutional authority and dismantling critical government functions at the expense of middle-class families. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published Thursday found that most Americans worry that federal budget cuts could harm essential public services.
Several government agencies have struggled to implement Trump’s executive orders. U.S. nuclear weapons overseers were briefly laid off and then reinstated, while foreign aid shipments of medicine and food remain stuck in storage due to Trump’s freeze on international assistance.
