IRS Took Big Hits as Experienced Workers Accepted DOGE Deals

The IRS lost some of its most experienced employees in the steep workforce exodus during the Trump administration’s first year, the agency’s watchdog said.

Almost 40% of the IRS workers who left the agency had more than 11 years of experience, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in Friday report. Workers who had between one to 11 years of experience were the largest demographic to exit, making up about 45%.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency wanted to reshape the federal government in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration, offering resignation incentives across the federal workforce. The IRS, as a result, saw about 30% of its roughly 100,000 person agency leave.

Taxpayer advocates and former IRS officials warned that fallout from the brain drain at the agency could lead to more tax cheats and rocky filing seasons. The IRS has since said it is still cracking down on people trying to not pay what they owe and touted a successful filing season.

But it’s taken some personnel changes to get there, and it’s costing the agency.

TIGTA noted that the IRS hired roughly 2,000 workers—both customer service representatives and tax examiners. It also moved 1,173 workers from other divisions to an involuntary detail to help process tax returns.

More than half of the detailed employees moved from higher grade positions to lower grade duties, keeping their pay and benefits, TIGTA said. The higher grade positions make upward of $125,000 compared to about $52,000 typically paid for these taxpayer service roles.

TIGTA said its Office of Audit is performing a separate review on the impact of the IRS redeploying resources to Taxpayer Services.