President Donald Trump, along with co-President Elon Musk and his DOGE minions, is reportedly planning to lay off thousands of Internal Revenue Service agents. And guess which ones? The tax collectors who work to make sure that the wealthy pay their fair share.
The Washington Post reports that, at least initially, Musk and Trump are looking to cut around 9,000 new agents. This would jibe with similar reports that DOGE is targeting news hires with fewer legal labor protections, including hundreds of workers at the National Cancer Institute.
”My office is hearing that DOGE is now at the IRS. That means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America. And if your refund is delayed, they could very well be the reason,” Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon posted on X the day before this announcement.
And not only is the IRS being downsized, but there are also plans to turn the department’s agents into deportation police. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked the Treasury Department to deputize IRS investigators for this very purpose.
The GOP and its billionaire donor overlords have been trying to decimate the IRS for years. House Republicans like Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Chip Roy of Texas have tried to attack IRS workers with threats of Oversight Committee hearings and the stripping away of civil service protections.
Under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS received more money than it had in years. That funding came with a mandate to modernize systems and to go after the uber-wealthy corporations and individuals who frequently exploit loopholes, leveraging their resources to get out of paying even the most meager rates.
Last year, the agency reported that it had successfully collected more than $1 billion from wealthy tax cheats. In January, as the GOP-led Congress threatened to cut its funding, the IRS announced that it had brought in an additional $360 million from wealthy tax dodgers.
In recent days, many have wondered how Musk’s Tesla, which has boasted billions in profit since 2020, paid 0% in taxes in 2024, 1.4% in 2023, and 0% in 2022—yet is valued at more than $1 trillion.
Musk famously moved his homes and Tesla operation from California to Texas, which allowed him to dodge an estimated $2.4 billion in taxes on profits he generated for years in California.
Walter Einenkel February 15, 2025 at 01:30AM From Daily Kos
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