Joe Biden and his tax-and-spend cronies on the left drew considerable backlash over a plan to add tens of thousands of additional IRS agents to the agency’s already bloated workforce:
Remember, Joe Biden and the Democrats added 80,000 IRS agents to come after you. Then he pardons this guy for tax evasion. pic.twitter.com/ZbVhBHA7uK
— GenX Shitposter (@GenxShitpost) December 2, 2024
As with a host of other issues, President Donald Trump entered office with a mission to undo his predecessor’s efforts to expand the grasp of tax collectors.
This week, reports surfaced that as many as 15,000 IRS agents could be laid off just as the tax season is heating up.
As ABC News reported:
The employees are on probationary status with limited tenure in their jobs and do not have jobs directly related to processing tax filings, a person familiar with the effort told ABC News.
It’s not clear, however, what impact the firings might have on this year’s tax season as much of the work at the IRS is connected to the agency’s mission of processing and enforcing payments.
Trump’s plans for the IRS have ignited a flurry of social media responses in recent weeks, many of which compared his approach favorably to that of the Biden administration:
“Tax collectors are not your friends. They are not trying to make sure you get your maximum refund.”
Joe Biden hired 87,000 new IRS agents not to go after billionaires, but to go after you. pic.twitter.com/c48ilDcp2W
— Timcast News (@TimcastNews) February 15, 2025
The same people screaming at Pres. Trump for auditing federal spending agreed with Pres. Biden hiring 80,000+ new IRS agents with guns to audit the American people. pic.twitter.com/eR69Xv4aLP
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) February 13, 2025
Remember when the Biden admin hired 80,000 ARMED IRS agents to go after hard-working, middle- class Americans?
Well Trump just reassigned them to assist in immigration enforcement
HELL yes!
— Isabella Maria DeLuca (@IsabellaMDeLuca) February 10, 2025
The New York Post also reported on the potential ouster of 15,000 agents:
The 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.
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.
IRS 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.
Here’s some additional coverage of Trump’s remarks about the IRS since taking office for his second term:
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