The Internal Revenue Service plans to cut its 90,000 workforce in half, according to the report.
Tax collection agencies aim to achieve significant labor cuts through layoffs, attrition and acquisition offers, sources say Associated Press on tuesday.
The Trump administration is also planning to relocate some IRS employees to the Department of Homeland Security. There, we will support immigration enforcement.
The layoffs are part of a doge-led effort to quickly reduce the size of the government by shutting down federal agencies, getting less than a year of probationary workers to take jobs, and encouraging federal employees to leave the post through a “deferred resignation program.”
The IRS already fired about 7,000 probation employees in February.
The White House memo later last month directed all federal agencies to develop plans to reduce staffing by March 13th.
It is unclear whether the White House will approve the IRS' plan to cut half of its workforce, and how long the massive cuts will be implemented over.
According to the New York Times, Doge Chief Elon Musk has embedded two staff members at Washington's IRS headquarters in recent weeks.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made clear last month that one of Trump's goals for the next four years is that the IRS is no longer needed as US revenue from tariffs will be so large.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and have all outsiders pay,” Lutnick appeared on Fox News channel Jesse Watters Primetime.
Prior to the inauguration, Trump, 78, announced that he plans to create an external revenue office tasked with collecting income provided by all foreigners, including income from tariffs.
“For too long, we have relied on using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to tax great people,” the president wrote in a January 14th Social Post of Truth. “Through a soft, pathetic, weak trade agreement, the American economy has taxed itself while bringing growth and prosperity to the world.”
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly boasted that his tariff plans would bring the American economy back to the “golden age,” and said before 1913, when the 16th Amendment gave Congress the power to impose federal income taxes, the government was funded primarily from tariffs.
Trump wiped out 25% tariffs in Mexico and Canada on Tuesday, doubling China's 10% tariffs to 20% as part of an effort to crack down on three countries' illegally exporting fentanyl to the United States.
The IRS did not immediately respond to requests to post comments.
