IRS Granted Special Authority to Hire 8,000 Employees Amid Staffing Shortages

The Internal Revenue Service has received special permission to quickly hire 8,000 employees through September, according to a memo obtained by NOTUS, after more than a quarter of the agency was downsized during Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts last year.

Trump administration officials had initially brushed off concerns that the IRS would struggle to handle the 2026 tax season with significantly fewer employees. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers in April the agency was “still able to maintain current services and implement new initiatives.”

IRS chief Frank Bisignano also told members of the Senate Finance Committee in April that it had been “the most successful filing season in IRS history.”

However, according to the February memo, seen by NOTUS, the IRS asked the Treasury Department for special authority to hire 8,000 employees on an expedited basis – indicating the agency knew it needed more support, despite officials' public comments.

The agency was eventually approved for the special project under “direct hire authority,” which allows agencies to circumvent traditional hiring processes when “there is a severe shortage of candidates or a critical hiring need.”

The Independent has asked the IRS and Office of Personnel Management for comment.

Alex Kweskin, the IRS’s top human resources official, said in the memo that the IRS had seen “massive cuts to its staff” through workforce reductions in 2025.

Soon after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump ordered agencies to downsize significantly, as part of his efforts to reduce the federal workforce and overhead costs. Officials in DOGE, led by Musk, had targeted IRS employees, first attempting to lay off more than 6,000 probationary employees in February 2025.

Musk offered deferred resignations and buyouts, which another 5,300 IRS employees took between March and May of 2025. Throughout the year, more IRS employees resigned.

By the end of 2025, roughly 27 percent of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce had left or been pushed out.

“Processing of tax returns, return information, balance due, delinquent returns, and correspondence for taxpayers and practitioners remains an ongoing issue,” Kweskin reportedly wrote in the memo.

The Office of Personnel Management confirmed to NOTUS that the IRS had been granted the special authority and said it would have it through September.

On the IRS’s website, the agency says it’s hiring employees across several sections, including its criminal investigation and law enforcement, executive and management, human resources, information technology, office of chief counsel and more.

The website advertises career opportunities for actuaries, statisticians, engineers, tax law specialists and others.