Roughly 20,000 workers at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have expressed interest in the most recent buyout offer from the Trump administration, FOX Business has learned.
An agency source told FOX Business that about 20,000 workers have indicated they are considering the buyout offer that was recently extended by the Trump administration and is similar to the offer extended broadly across federal agencies earlier this year.
Reuters reported that the deferred resignation offer would allow most of those who accept it to go on leave with pay until Sept. 30.
The IRS had about 100,000 employees at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. Since then, the administration has fired about 7,000 probationary employees, while another 5,000 have left the agency in the last three months.
ACTING IRS CHIEF TO STEP DOWN AFTER IMMIGRATION DEAL WITH DHS: REPORT
Under former President Joe Biden, the administration boosted the IRS workforce by about 20,000 workers to increase the amount of tax revenue collected by the agency.
Fiscal watchdog groups have warned that losing so many workers will hinder the IRS’ ability to efficiently process tax returns and collect revenue, which could result in the federal government collecting less revenue than it otherwise would have and causing the budget deficit to widen.
SENATE DOGE CAUCUS CHAIR WANTS IMPROVED TECH FROM IRS TO HELP THOSE STARTING A BUSINESS
The federal budget deficit topped $1.8 trillion in the last fiscal year and is expected to continue to grow due to rising spending on Social Security, Medicare and interest on the more than $36 trillion national debt.
The ongoing downsizing of the IRS workforce and that of other federal agencies is part of the effort by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, arguing it is bloated and inefficient. DOGE has also sought to root out waste and fraud at various federal agencies.
Roughly 200,000 workers have left the 2.3-million civilian federal workforce through a combination of buyouts, layoffs and resignations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Read the full article here
