The Trump administration started firing about 6,700 employees at the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, extending its cost-cutting measures to the federal agency responsible for collecting tax revenue from millions of Americans.
The job cuts at the I.R.S. are hitting probationary employees who were recently hired around the country. More than 5,000 of those workers are part of the agency’s compliance teams, which deal with auditing and collections. The layoffs are coming a week before the start of tax filing season, when the I.R.S. will be inundated with paperwork and questions from taxpayers.
The I.R.S. employs about 100,000 accountants, lawyers and other staff across the country. The Biden administration was in the process of beefing up enforcement and modernizing the agency with an $80 billion investment, but President Trump wants to curb its powers and has dispatched Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize its computer systems.
A spokeswoman for the I.R.S. declined to provide an exact number for the layoffs, which some people familiar with the matter could be as low as 6,000 or as high as 7,000. The people were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the situation.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said on Thursday that the layoffs are “absolutely on the table for good reasons” and that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent believes that the agency could afford to lose more than 3,500 people.
Asked if the I.R.S. employees were being let go because of poor performance, Mr. Hassett said, “Our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective and there are more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes and not all of them are fully occupied.”
The Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Fox News on Wednesday that Mr. Trump wants to replace the I.R.S. with an “External Revenue Service” that would be funded by tariff revenue.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Mr. Lutnick said.
The Treasury had no comment about the job cuts.
In emails sent on Wednesday, I.R.S. managers told employees targeted for layoffs that they were not considered critical to filing season, the annual period when millions of Americans prepare their taxes. Still, the large layoff before the spring tax deadline has concerned some tax experts and Democrats that the I.R.S. could have trouble processing tax returns this year.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents I.R.S. workers, assailed the layoff as a critical mistake by the Trump administration. The labor group called the firings “arbitrary and unlawful.”
“Indiscriminate firings of I.R.S. employees around the country are a recipe for economic disaster,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of N.T.E.U. National. “In the middle of a tax filing season, when taxpayers expect prompt customer service and smooth processing of their tax returns, the administration has chosen to decimate the whole operation by sending dedicated civil servants to the unemployment lines.”
The firings at the I.R.S. are expected to hit recent hires of employees focused on the agency’s enforcement efforts. The tax agency has been trying to hire more lawyers and accountants who can audit wealthy Americans and large corporations to collect more of the tax that they owe. The I.R.S. estimates that roughly $600 billion in owed taxes go uncollected each year.
“These misguided layoffs will hurt everyday Americans who pay their taxes and count on the I.R.S. to pay refunds on time while encouraging wealthy people and large businesses to cheat on their taxes,” said Chye-Ching Huang, executive director of the Tax Law Center at New York University.
Mr. Hassett said that the I.R.S. was just a “small part” of the Trump administration’s plan to fire workers who were viewed as poor performers.
“I live in D.C.,” Mr. Hassett said. “Nobody’s going into the buildings, people aren’t commuting because people aren’t doing their jobs.”
“We’re fixing that and the I.R.S. is a small part of that picture.”
That was clear on Thursday, as firings continued across the federal government.
The Trump administration fired 243 probationary employees at the Transportation Security Administration, the agency confirmed on Thursday.
Those let go included T.S.A. officers and other administrative staff. Despite the cuts, the agency said, it is continuing to hire mission-critical positions.
T.S.A., which is part of the Homeland Security Department, was formed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Congress has charged the agency with protecting the nation’s transportation systems.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, T.S.A. terminated personnel due to performance and conduct issues during their probationary period,” Carter Langston, a spokesman for the agency, said in a statement. “The agency is actively working to implement the administration’s priorities in full cooperation with D.H.S. to identify waste and to staff the mission essential positions that best fulfill D.H.S.’ mission.”
The C.I.A. also moved to dismiss an unspecified number of officers who were working on recruiting and diversity issues, according to former officials. A federal judge has halted those actions and will hold a hearing on Monday on whether the C.I.A. can proceed with the dismissals, which would be the largest mass firing since 1977.
Mark Walker and Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting.
