The Trump administration's reported plan to possibly halve the IRS' workforce met at least one critic Tuesday — former IRS commissioner John Koskinen.
The agency plans to drastically reduce its workforce through layoffs, attrition and buyouts, The Associated Press reported, citing two people familiar with the plans. As much as half of the IRS could get the ax.
The layoffs are part of Trump's effort to dramatically shrink the federal government and slash trillions from the federal budget through Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
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Cutting tens of thousands from the IRS — which employs about 90,000 workers total nationwide — would render the agency “dysfunctional,” Koskinen told The Associated Press.
The plan comes after about 7,000 probationary workers were laid off last month. It also comes after Trump signed an executive order in late January freezing hiring at the IRS indefinitely.
“President Trump’s cease-and-desist order to the IRS is a crucial first step to helping middle-class Americans and small businesses living in fear of 87,000 new IRS agents targeting them with new audits and monitoring their personal transactions. Democrats have said all along that they will ramp up audits on Americans every year to squeeze as much revenue out of them as possible. A return to ‘historical audit levels’ as sought by Democrats means 600,000 more families making less than $75,000 would be hit with an IRS audit," the administration said at the time.