6,000 US IRS employees laid off

(CLO) A senior leader of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) informed employees on Thursday that about 6,000 people will be laid off, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The move cuts about 6% of the IRS workforce in the middle of the busy tax filing season.

The cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s plan to streamline the government, targeting bank regulators, forestry workers, space scientists and tens of thousands of other government workers. The campaign is led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is the biggest donor to Trump’s campaign.

Mr. Musk holds a saw given to him by Argentine President Javier Milei. Photo: X

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, Argentine President Javier Milei, who is famous for using a chainsaw to illustrate his aggressive budget-cutting policies, handed billionaire Elon Musk a chainsaw.

“This is a chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Mr. Musk said, holding up the saw as a symbol of a massive overhaul of government.

Labor unions have filed lawsuits to try to stop the mass layoffs, which have left tens of thousands of federal workers out of work. However, a federal judge in Washington ruled on Thursday that the layoffs can go ahead.

The total number of layoffs could be as high as 6,700, according to one source, mostly people hired as part of the IRS expansion under former President Joe Biden. Biden had sought to increase tax enforcement on the wealthy, but Republicans opposed it, saying it could lead to harassment of ordinary people.

The IRS currently has about 100,000 employees, up from 80,000 when Mr. Biden took office in 2021. Independent budget experts have predicted that the expansion of staff under Mr. Biden could help increase tax revenue and narrow the trillion-dollar budget deficit.

The layoffs include tax collectors, customer service representatives, tax dispute resolution specialists and information technology workers, affecting all 50 US states.

The IRS is taking a more cautious approach to staffing than other agencies, given the tax filing season. The agency expects to process more than 140 million individual tax returns by the April 15 deadline and will retain a limited number of employees to complete the task.

The Trump administration has not released the exact number of federal employees being laid off, but about 75,000 accepted voluntary furlough offers last week.

Cao Phong (according to NYT, AJ, CNN)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/6000-nhan-vien-so-thue-vu-my-bi-sa-thai-post335460.html