Thousands of IRS Firings Foreshadow Delays, Enforcement Drop

Thousands of cuts to the IRS workforce threaten to throw a wrench in the agency’s plans to ramp up tax enforcement and will likely delay refunds for complex filers.

While tax professionals and agency veterans agree companies and individuals won’t feel an immediate impact of the cuts during filing season, the ripple effect after April 15 is another matter, especially with a chunk of the workforce eligible to retire in several years.

“We’ll see in a year and a half that high-net-worth clients who support this administration are upset because they didn’t get their refund, and they’re going to be ...