The IRS will lay off as many as 15,000 employees in the middle of tax season as the White House continues to slash spending across the government.
The axed workers are all on probationary status with limited tenure in their jobs, two insiders confirmed to the Associated Press.
The cuts could come as early as next week — just one month after the IRS began accepting tax returns.
The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency’s plans. APThe move comes after an employee of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency arrived at the IRS’ headquarters on Thursday asking about the agency’s technology and how audits are done, ABC News reported.
An estimated 15,000 employees will be affected.
The major round of layoffs comes as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to trim federal government spending by shrinking the workforce — and ordered agencies to lay off probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection.
This announcement comes as the Trump administration intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce. Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season were blocked from accepting a buyout plan previously offered by the Trump administration that would allow them to resign while still collecting a paycheck through September.
That plan had a deadline of Feb. 6, while IRS employees were told they could accept a similar one after the taxpayer filing deadline in April.
It is not clear how the widespread IRS layoffs will affect this tax season — which officials expect to see more than 140 million returns.
The Trump administration’s move comes after former President Joe Biden beefed up the agency to help with customer service and enforcement.
With Post wires
