"The office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, a federal watchdog, put out a memo in January highlighting its "concerns" about the IRS's readiness for the 2026 filing season, most of which are downstream from staffing. The agency had more than 100,000 staffers (accountants, lawyers, customer-service specialists, and more) toward the end of 2024; a year later, firings and buyouts had lowered that number to about 81,000."
"That it lost nearly a fifth of its employees will likely affect its ability to tackle existing problems, such as backlogs of returns and outdated technology, and introduce new ones that will slow it even further."
"In the past, the agency encouraged undocumented people to file returns and promised to keep their information private. But during last year's tax season, amid the Trump administration's aggressive immigration-enforcement push, the IRS funneled data from protected tax records to the Department of Homeland Security."
The IRS headquarters displays Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s quote that taxes fund civilized society, yet the agency is increasingly ill-equipped to collect them. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration raised concerns about the IRS's readiness for the 2026 filing season, primarily due to staffing shortages. The agency lost nearly one-fifth of its workforce through firings and buyouts, dropping from over 100,000 to approximately 81,000 employees. This reduction will exacerbate existing problems including return backlogs and outdated technology. Additionally, the IRS shared protected tax data with the Department of Homeland Security during immigration enforcement efforts, deterring undocumented immigrants from filing returns and reducing revenue collection while creating fear in immigrant communities.
#irs-staffing-crisis #tax-collection-challenges #immigration-enforcement #government-budget-cuts #tax-administration
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