Nearly 20,000 IRS employees are accepting the second deferred buyout offer from the Trump administration, according to reports. This accounts for about one-fifth of the agency’s workforce.
Earlier this year, around 4,700 employees took the first deferred resignation offer, and nearly 7,000 probationary employees were placed on administrative leave. The IRS has already begun implementing its reduction-in-force plan as part of a broader initiative led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under Elon Musk’s direction. The report comes on the same day as the IRS taxpayer filing deadline. Employees involved in the 2025 tax season had been informed they would need to wait until after the deadline to accept the buyout. Those who take the buyout will stop working but continue to receive their salary and benefits until the end of September. This is part of DOGE’s strategy to reduce federal spending.
To maintain operations during tax season, the IRS plans to reassign workers from other departments. The staffing cuts could counteract the staffing increase provided by the $80 billion allocated to the IRS under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Several top IRS officials have already accepted the buyout offer, including Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause and her predecessor, Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell.
