{"id":621,"date":"2025-06-25T14:28:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2025-06-26T14:22:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T14:22:05","slug":"trumps-budget-bill-could-complicate-2026-tax-filing-season-after-irs-cuts-watchdog-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.agencywebdesigners.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/25\/trumps-budget-bill-could-complicate-2026-tax-filing-season-after-irs-cuts-watchdog-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s budget bill could complicate 2026 tax filing season after IRS cuts, watchdog warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

By FATIMA HUSSEIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The budget bill championed by President Donald Trump<\/a> could complicate next year\u2019s tax filing season after the IRS lost one-quarter of its employees through staffing cuts, an independent watchdog<\/a> reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The IRS workforce has fallen from 102,113 workers to 75,702 over the past year, according to the latest National Taxpayer Advocate<\/a> report to Congress. The report Wednesday offered the first official numbers on the IRS job losses associated with Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

Most of the employees took the \u201cfork in the road\u201d resignation offer from DOGE rather than waiting to get laid off.<\/p>\n

Some of the findings from the report:<\/p>\n

Taxpayers will likely see effects of staffing reductions<\/h4>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy<\/a> led to a mass exodus of probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protections and were offered buyouts through a \u201cdeferred resignation program.\u201d More than 17,500 IRS workers took that route. The biggest cuts were in taxpayer services, the small business\/self-employed office and information technology.<\/p>\n

The report noted that the Republican administration\u2019s proposed budget includes a 20% reduction in IRS funding next year. That\u2019s a 37% reduction when taking into account the supplemental funding in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act that Republicans previously stripped away.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reduction of that magnitude is likely to impact taxpayers and potentially the revenue collected,\u201d wrote Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

The 2026 tax season could be precarious<\/h4>\n

Collins said the 2025 filing season was \u201cone of the most successful filing seasons in recent memory,\u201d though she warned that the 2026 season could be rocky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the IRS workforce reduced by 26% and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year\u2019s filing season,\u201d Collins wrote. \u201cIt is critical that the IRS begin to take steps now to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that, halfway through the year, there were concerns that the IRS had not yet undertaken key preparation steps, including hiring and training seasonal and permanent employees.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s package could add new layer of problems<\/h4>\n

The report warned about the possibility of understaffing to manage new provisions from Trump\u2019s legislative package if it\u2019s enacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral provisions will retroactively affect the 2025 tax year, thus impacting millions of taxpayers and requiring the IRS to quickly update tax year 2025 tax forms and programming for the 2026 filing season,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n