Thousands of IRS employees laid off as tax refund season gets underway
Thousands of IRS employees were laid off, primarily affecting President Biden’s expansion hires aimed at tax enforcement on wealthy taxpayers.
Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause is expected to resign, according to two administration officials, continuing turmoil is the agency’s top leadership.
Krause is the third person to lead the IRS since January. Acting Commissioner Doug O’Donnell left last month.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Krause is resigning after “being bypassed over a new agreement to share tax data of undocumented immigrants with Homeland Security personnel.”
The IRS has agreed to share tax information with federal immigration agents to help them find immigrants in the U.S. illegally, according to court filings.
“Melanie Krause has been leading the IRS through a time of extraordinary change,” a spokesperson for the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, said in a statement. “As we focus on IT modernization and re-organize the agency to better serve the taxpayer, we are also in the midst of breaking down data silos that for too long have stood in the way of identifying waste, fraud, and abuse and bringing criminals to justice. We believe these goals are critical to a more efficient government and safer country. We wish Melanie well on her next endeavor.”
The IRS has begun laying off thousands of workers as the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, pushes mass terminations across federal agencies. More than 20,000 staff are expected to be cut in an agency of roughly 100,000.
DOGE also has sparked data privacy and security concerns by seeking access to internal IRS computer systems with vast amounts of sensitive data.
Krause joined the IRS in 2021 as chief data and analytics officer. She became chief operating officer last year. She previously worked at the Government Accountability Office and Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.
Contributing: Reuters, Eduardo Cuevas