Over 3,500 Internal Revenue Service employees are expected to be terminated by the end of this week, according to the text of an email obtained by CBS News and shared by an IRS employee.
The email was sent to managers of the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division Wednesday, and it says that the affected SBSE employees will be notified Thursday by the IRS Human Capital Office.
The email, signed by SBSE commissioner Lia Colbert and SBSE deputy commissioner Maha Williams, says that “while details are still developing, we understand that over 3,500 SB/SE probationary hires will be terminated by the end of this week.”
According to the email, the probationary workers who are expected to be fired “were not deemed as critical to filing season.” The layoffs are expected to take place a couple of weeks before the tax filing season reaches peak activity, in mid-March through mid-April.
The IRS will be carrying out some of the highest numbers of mass terminations known so far at a department or agency — and these figures represent only a single department within the IRS. Managers in the IRS Large Business & International Division also received an email that asked them to come into the office Thursday and Friday “to support offboarding activities.” It did not specify a number of employees that could be terminated.
CBS News has also reached out to the IRS and White House for comment.
The IRS has tens of thousands of employees — it used 82,990 full-time equivalent positions to carry out its work in 2023. Under former President Joe Biden, the Inflation Reduction Act boosted IRS funding over the next decade by $80 billion. A fraction of this, $1.4 billion, was rescinded in a bill passed by Congress in 2023.
The anticipated layoffs are taking place after the Trump administration and the Office of Personnel Management issued a directive to cut probationary workers across federal agencies. The federal government’s probationary workers are those who are still in a trial period that typically extends for one to two years of employment in their position.
This past weekend, an IRS employee affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency requested access to an internal data system within the IRS that houses Americans’ individual personal tax information. An executive order signed by Trump in early February instructed agency heads to work with DOGE and initiate “large scale reductions in force.”
The Wednesday email to SBSE managers goes on to say that later Wednesday, they would receive a list of the employees who are to be terminated. After telling managers to instruct employees to be in the office at the end of the week, the email also asked SBSE managers to be in the office for the rest of the week.
The SBSE division makes sure small business owners comply with their tax obligations, like filing their taxes, and it offers help with debt resolution. It serves more than 57 million small business owners and entrepreneurs with less than $10 million in assets, according to the IRS website.
“IT will be available to help secure equipment. If IT is not available, managers will secure equipment,” the email to SBSE managers reads. It adds that there will be a guide and FAQ guide “to help guide managers through this difficult process.”
Some LB&I employees were also called and emailed Wednesday to be summoned to the office later this week and were told to bring any government-issued equipment with them, like access cards and paper case files.
“Under an executive order, IRS has been directed to terminate probationary employees who were not deemed as critical to filing season. We don’t have many details that we are permitted to share, but this is all tied to compliance with the executive order,” according to the text of the email shared with CBS News.
Before cuts of the probationary workers at several agencies began last week, federal employees were offered a “deferred resignation” buyout program by the Trump administration. The program offered employees the option to resign and go on administrative leave while retaining their pay and benefits until Sept. 30. Over 75,000 employees opted in before the program’s deadline, according to the White House. The program is facing legal challenges, but a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in early February that the program could continue. Within an hour of the ruling, the Office of Personal Management announced the deadline to participate had passed.
