The Internal Revenue Service is expected to begin firing thousand of workers this week as it becomes the latest target of DOGE as the Trump administration moves to shrink the federal workforce.
The agency responsible for collecting taxes will begin cutting 6,000 employees starting on Thursday, the New York Times reported.
The effort is expected to impact mostly recent hires in the IRS as the Trump administration has started to slash mostly probationary workers across a series of agencies who do not enjoy the same job protections as more seasoned colleagues.
It comes in the midst of tax filing season which has sparked concerns about how it could impact Americans dealing with the IRS in the weeks and months to come.
Some Democrats and former IRS officials have warned cutting workers could lead to longer waits for Americans to get information and could potentially impact the wait times for receiving a tax refunds.
According to the messages reviewed by the New York Times, IRS managers started asking employees to report to the office in the coming days and to bring their government-issued equipment with them.
The IRS is reportedly going to begin laying off roughly 6,000 employees starting Thursday as DOGE looks to slash the federal workforce
IRS employees had been holding their breath and waiting for the shoe to drop as Trump and Republican allies have targeted the agency even before DOGE started mass firings.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Treasury Department and IRS for comment.
The IRS has roughly 100,000 full time employees for the current fiscal year up from about 90,000 a year ago, according to the annual taxpayer advocate report.
The agency with the help of Congress and the Biden administration has made a dramatic push to beef up staffing in recent years after it was swamped during the coronavirus pandemic which resulted in long wait times for information, impossible to reach customer service and delayed refunds.
The taxpayer advocate said that the hiring of more employees has resulted in improved telephone services, correspondents and in-person access.
However, the agency has long been a target of Republicans who have accused it of taking politically motivated steps against conservatives.
GOP lawmakers and Trump slammed funding increases for the IRS as the previous administration pushed for more money to improve services but also increase enforcement.
Elon Musk’s DOGE has been firing workers across the federal government as part of its effort to shrink the federal workforce in recent weeks
While the employee layoffs are not supposed to affect those considered ‘critical’ for government functions, it remains to be seen who exactly gets the axe.
Some IRS employees took to Reddit this week to lend support to each other and describe what if feels like as they wait to see what happens as managers have indicated they have little insight and have even suggested terminations could come in the form of an email.
One person wrote that it was like ‘waiting for a huge hurricane to hit knowing it’s going to rip the roof off your house and leave your family homeless.’
Another said it was the chaos and uncertainty that was the worst part while others said they had been obsessively checking their emails for news over the holiday weekend.
It comes as a member of DOGE was seeking access to the IRS’ highly sensitive taxpayer data system, according to CNN.
The system includes information including Social Security numbers and banking information.
