The Trump administration is cutting more than 6,000 jobs at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in the middle of a tax season when millions of Americans file their returns, US media report.
The layoffs, believed to be part of the administration’s push to shrink the federal work force, began on Thursday across the country.
The probationary workers who are expected to lose their jobs “were not deemed as critical to filing season”, according to an email seen by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Most Americans have a deadline of April 15 to file their taxes, though the government allows extensions under some circumstances.
The BBC has contacted the IRS and Treasury Department for comment.
Reports suggest the terminations will target mostly new and newly promoted employees, with half of the cuts hitting an office known as the Small Business/Self-Employed (SBSE) Division.
The email from SBSE commissioner Lia Colbert says that “while details are still developing, we understand that over 3,500 SB/SE probationary hires will be terminated by the end of this week”.
About 83,000 people worked for the IRS as of the 2023 fiscal year.
Many of the targeted roles appear to deal with compliance matters, or ensuring Americans pay what the government says they owe.
The job cuts could cause confusion and destabilisation at a time when Americans are expecting tax refunds or need help from an expert.
“What people like even less than paying taxes is not being able to reach someone to help them pay their taxes accurately,” said Linda Bilmes, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and a former assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce under President Bill Clinton.
But cutting such IRS jobs could have a detrimental impact on Trump’s often-repeated promise to slash the federal deficit.
“It is a very much of a shoot yourself in the foot move,” said Ms Bilmes. “It undermines our very capacity to bring in the revenue that we should be collecting.”
The Biden administration had secured $80bn (£63.2bn) in funding for new resources and staff at the IRS, to help the government bring in more revenue.
Republicans, who generally advocate for lower taxes, opposed the effort and have long targeted the IRS for funding cuts. The IRS itself does not set tax policy, but enforces the laws and policies passed by Congress and the president.
Some of these lawmakers have argued that the increased funding would actually be used to go after everyday Americans.
In a statement last week, Republican Congressman Nathaniel Moran of Texas accused the IRS of using its new funds for “targeting American taxpayers” rather than addressing cybersecurity concerns.
In an interview on Fox News, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that Trump’s “goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay”.
He proposed an “External Revenue Service” to generate funds from tariffs instead.
The new Trump administration, and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), are implementing the layoffs as part of a cost-cutting drive aimed at drastically reducing the size of the federal workforce.
Thousands of employees have either taken a buyout offer, or been fired or placed on administrative leave. Trump officials have also floated the idea of dismantling some government agencies in their entirety.
Polling indicates some discomfort among Americans for Trump’s changes to the federal workforce.
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll suggests that 54% of Americans disapproved of the way Trump is managing the federal government, compared to 44% who approved.
The poll’s responses are split heavily among partisan lines. But 60% of Americans who consider themselves politically independent believed Trump had gone beyond his authority.
