The Trump administration started on Thursday to fire about 6,700 employees on the Internal Revenue Service, according to people who are familiar with the case, which extended the cost-saving measures to the federal agency responsible for collecting tax revenues of millions of Americans.
The job loss at the IRS affects probation staff who have recently been hired throughout the country. More than 5,000 of those employees are part of the compliance teams of the agency, who are involved in auditing and collections. The dismissals come a week during the tax return season, when the IRS will be flooded with paperwork and questions from taxpayers.
The IRS employs around 100,000 accountants, lawyers and other staff throughout the country. The Biden administration was busy strengthening enforcement and modernizing the agency with an investment of $ 80 billion, but President Trump wants to curb his powers and has sent Elon Musk and his so-called government efficiency to investigate its computer systems.
A spokeswoman for the IRS refused to offer an exact number for the dismissals, some people who are familiar with the case, they could be, as low as 6,000 or as high as 7,000. People were given anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council of the White House, said on Thursday that the dismissal “absolutely on the table for good reasons” and that Minister of Finance Scott Bessent believes that the agency could afford to make more than 3,500 people to lose.
Asked if the IRS employees were released due to poor performance, Mr. Hassett said: “Our objective is to ensure that the employees we pay are productive and effective and there are more than 100,000 people to collect taxes and not they are All fully occupied. '
The commercial secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on FOX News on Wednesday that Mr. Trump wants to replace the IRS with an “external entry service” that would be financed by tariff income.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and to have all outsiders pay,” said Mr. Lutnick.
The treasury had no comments about the job loss.
In e -mails sent on Wednesday, IRS managers said employees on dismissal that they were not considered crucial for the submission season, the annual period in which millions of Americans prepare their taxes. Nevertheless, the large dismissal before the deadline for the spring tax relied on some tax experts and Democrats that the IRS could have problems this year to process tax returns.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees, has attacked the dismissal as a critical error from the Trump government. The labor group called the shooting 'random and illegal'.
“Unbielded fired by IRS employees throughout the country are a recipe for economic disaster,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of Nteu National. “In the middle of a tax requesting season, when taxpayers expect fast customer service and smooth processing of their tax return, the administration has chosen to decimate the entire operation by sending dedicated officials to the unemployment lines.”
The dismissal from the IRS is expected to touch recent employees of employees aimed at the enforcement efforts of the agency. The Tax Agency has tried to hire more lawyers and accountants who can check rich Americans and large companies to collect more of the taxes they owe. The IRS estimates that around $ 600 billion in taxes due is not collected every year.
“These misguided redundancies will harm everyday Americans who pay their taxes and count on the IRS to pay refunds on time and encourage rich people and large companies to cheat their taxes,” said Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University.
Mr. Hassett said that the IRS was only a “small part” of the Trump government's plan to dismiss employees who were considered bad artists.
“I live in DC,” said Mr. Hassett. “Nobody goes into the buildings, people are not living -work traffic because people don't do their work.”
“We repair that and the IRS is a small part of that photo.”
That was clear on Thursday, because the fire continued to exist about the federal government.
The Trump administration fired 243 probation employees at the Transportation Security Administration, the agency confirmed on Thursday.
They let go, include TSA officers and other administrative staff. Despite the cutbacks, the agency said, the mission -critical positions continue to hire.
TSA, which is part of the Homeland Security department, was formed after the terrorist attacks of 11 September. The Congress has accused the agency of protecting the transport systems of the country.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, TSA ended the staff due to performance and behavioral problems during their probationary period,” said Carter Langston, a spokesperson for the agency, in a statement. “The Agency is actively working on implementing the priorities of the administration in full collaboration with DHS to identify waste and to man the Mission Essential positions that best fulfill the Mission of DHS.”
The CIA has also moved to dismiss a non -specific number of officers who, according to former officials, worked on recruitment and diversity issues. A federal judge has stopped those actions and will hold a hearing on Monday about whether the CIA can continue with the resignation, which would be the largest massive dismissal since 1977.
Mark Walker And Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting.
