Almost 20,000 IRS employees taking second Trump buyout offer: Bloomberg
Nearly 20,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees are taking the Trump administration’s second deferred buyout offer, Bloomberg reported.
According to a source familiar with the number of buyouts, the total amounts to one-fifth of the agency.
Bloomberg reported about 4,700 people took the first deferred resignation offer earlier this year. An additional almost 7,000 probationary employees were put on administrative leave.
The IRS already began its reduction-in-force plan earlier this month, as directed by the administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Bloomberg’s report comes the same day as the IRS taxpayer deadline.
Employees at the IRS were previously told that if they were involved in the 2025 tax season, they wouldn’t be able to accept the buyout President Trump offered federal employees.
They instead would have to wait until the filing deadline passed.
Federal employees who accept the deal will stop working but continue to receive a paycheck and benefits through the end of September. It’s part of DOGE’s longer-term plan to scale back federal spending.
The agency said it would relocate workers from other areas to assist during tax filing seasons because of the buyouts. Under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS received $80 billion to boost staffing and efficiency. The number of departures would effectively undo that staffing increase, Bloomberg reported.
Several of the IRS’s top officials have already taken the buyout offer.
Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause is set to resign, and her resignation follows her successor, acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell. Before O’Donnell resigned, Danny Werfel, a Biden nominee, left on Trump’s inauguration day.