Warren, Wyden, Schumer, Lawmakers Seek IRS Watchdog Investigation Into Trump Administration’s Decision To Gut IRS
Mass firings, office closures could delay taxpayers’ refunds, allow major abuses to go undetected or unaddressed
“Reducing IRS staff will have profound effects, hindering the agency’s ability to process … tax returns … potentially causing delays for taxpayers waiting for refunds, and inhibiting the agency’s ability to conduct audits to catch wealthy tax cheats.”
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, led their colleagues in sending a letter to the Acting Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), urging her to launch an investigation into the Trump Administration's decision to fire nearly 7,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees and close over 100 Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs). The letter follows new reporting revealing that the IRS is preparing to gut half of its workforce, a decision that threatens to undermine the IRS’s ability to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and provide quality service for American taxpayers.
In addition to co-leads Senators Warren and Wyden, the following 16 senators signed on: Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Merkley (D-O.R.), King (I-M.E.), Markey (D-M.A.), Shaheen (D-N.H.), Booker (D-N.J.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Kim (D-N.J.), Murray (D-Wash.), Sanders (I-Vt.), Van Hollen (D-Md.), Welch (D-Vt.), Whitehouse (D-R.I), Reed (D-R.I), and Hirono (D-Hawaii.)
“Given the implications these mass firings and office closures may have on the quality of service provided by the IRS, an evaluation by your office would be consistent with your mission of ‘conducting audits and investigations that improve IRS operations,’” explained the lawmakers.
Before President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provided the IRS with $80 billion over the next 10 years, the agency suffered from chronic underfunding and understaffing. This major investment allowed the IRS to recover $1.3 billion from tax cheats, improve access to IRS services, and launch more digital tools to help Americans file their taxes.
“These investments made through the IRA will—if not rolled back by President Trump and Republicans in Congress—pay for themselves many times over... every dollar [spent] on the IRS’s enforcement activities results in $5 to $9 of revenue to fund investments in programs for the American people,” wrote the lawmakers.
Last month, the Trump Administration ordered the IRS to begin firing employees. The massive layoffs have already begun “shaking the foundations of the tax agency during filing season.” Reducing IRS staff and offices will profoundly affect Americans filing their taxes this season, slowing the agency’s ability to process the over 140 million expected individual tax returns and potentially causing delays for taxpayer refunds. The IRS also plans to close an additional 110 TACs around the country, which will harm Americans seeking to access critical taxpayer services.
The senators asked the Acting Inspector General to determine if the Trump Administration’s recent decisions undermine the IRS’s progress, and if the firings and closures impact the agency’s mission to “[p]rovide America's taxpayers top-quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.”
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