IRS Faces Staffing Crisis After Trump Administration Cuts, Seeks Emergency Hiring Authority

The IRS shed roughly 31,000 employees between January 2025 and the start of 2026, representing a 28% net reduction in personnel after accounting for approximately 2,000 new hires, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The cuts effectively reversed the Biden-era expansion funded by $80 billion in appropriations, returning the agency to staffing levels last seen in 2020. Among those who departed were thousands of senior employees — including 8,600 with 21 or more years of service — as well as 40% of workers aged 55 and older, a third of revenue agents, and nearly a third of tax examiners. To maintain basic operations, the IRS involuntarily reassigned supervisors and high-skilled technical staff earning $100,000 or more to answer phones, a role that typically pays as little as $35,000, while those employees continued to collect their higher salaries. A February 2025 internal memo, obtained by NOTUS, shows the IRS sought and received Treasury Department approval to hire 8,000 employees under 'direct hire authority,' a mechanism reserved for critical staffing shortages — even as top officials publicly described the 2025 filing season as a success. The inspector general also flagged concerns about the IRS's institutional independence, noting that career officials have been sidelined in favor of politically appointed personnel, a departure from the agency's historically nonpartisan structure.