Trump Administration Plans A 25 Percent Staff Cut At IRS Taxpayer Help Office

The IRS building in Washington, seen last month. (Annabelle Gordon/For The Washington Post)

By Shannon Najmabadi and Jacob Bogage

The Trump administration is set to cut more than 20 percent of the staff at the taxpayer help branch of the IRS, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post, eliminating jobs designed to help people struggling with their finances, identity theft or other tax issues.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service is slated to lose 430 of about 1,900 employees in an initial phase of staff reductions. Those cuts would come in addition to more than 90 employees who took deferred resignation offers or were laid off earlier this year, according to the plan, which the agency is in the final stages of implementing, according to two people familiar with it, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.

Overall, the tax agency would shed 18 percent of its workforce by mid-May compared with the workforce it had in January, according to the people and internal agency records. The Taxpayer Advocate Service would lose more than a quarter of the staff it had at the beginning of the year.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins said the IRS is working with the Treasury Department “on the scope and allocation of workforce reductions.”

“To my knowledge, no final decisions have been made,” she said.

Spokespeople for the Treasury Department and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Continue reading

Disclaimer

The information contained in South Florida Reporter is for general information purposes only.
The South Florida Reporter assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in the contents of the Service.
In no event shall the South Florida Reporter be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Service or the contents of the Service. The Company reserves the right to make additions, deletions, or modifications to the contents of the Service at any time without prior notice.
The Company does not warrant that the Service is free of viruses or other harmful components