DATA IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Other data highlights:
The Internal Revenue Service depends on a talented and experienced workforce to ensure that the tax system operates fairly and effectively. After years of understaffing, the additional funding provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allowed the revenue agency to rapidly increase hiring. Strengthening the workforce was especially urgent because, as the National Taxpayer Advocate noted, 18% of agency employees were retirement eligible. At the end of fiscal year 2024, the IRS had 99,628 employees, an increase of 18% since 2022. The IRS Commissioner and Chief Counsel were the agency’s only “political” appointees (i.e. nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate), with the Commissioner appointed to a five-year term. All other IRS employees were career civil servants.
Scroll down for a timeline of the changes in the IRS’s leadership and workforce since November 2024.
You can also download a spreadsheet with the full list of available data, including the range of years for which data is available.
The IRS Spotlight © 2025 by The Brookings Institution is licensed under CC BY 4.0