About 22,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service have signed up for the Trump administration’s latest resignation offer, according to four people familiar with the matter, an exodus that could weaken the agency’s ability to collect taxes.
The I.R.S. had about 100,000 employees before President Trump took office. Roughly 5,000 employees have resigned since January, and an additional 7,000 probationary employees were laid off, though those firings have been contested in court. If those layoffs take effect, the agency would be on track to lose about a third of its work force this year.
Under the terms of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, employees who take the deal will be put on paid administrative leave through September and then leave their federal jobs. Some employees who took the offer could still opt out of resigning.
Losing a third of I.R.S. staff — with remaining employees bracing for further layoffs and funding cuts — is expected to decrease the amount of revenue the federal government is able to collect. The cuts have already caused the I.R.S. to abandon some audits, current and former employees said, and taxpayers may feel more emboldened to try and avoid paying taxes if the I.R.S. is diminished.
The Biden administration had expanded the I.R.S. by about 20,000 employees in hopes of increasing the amount of tax revenue it collected. A Treasury spokesperson said the department was aiming to reverse the hirings from the last administration and still improve service.
“The Secretary is committed to ensuring that efficiency is realized while providing the collections, privacy and customer service the American people deserve,” the spokesperson for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Among the resigning I.R.S. officials is the acting commissioner, Melanie Krause. She and other top I.R.S. officials decided to leave the agency in part because of an agreement to share taxpayer information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration’s decision to use I.R.S. data to help deport undocumented immigrants has caused widespread concern at the tax collector, which has long kept taxpayer information confidential.
