- Since January 2025, the IRS has lost more than a quarter of its workforce and most of the agency’s top civil service leadership.
- Top civil servants have departed the agency over efforts by the Trump administration to drastically reduce the workforce, to interfere in the enforcement of tax laws, and to share sensitive taxpayer data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
- The IRS commissioner position is currently vacant, a situation unprecedented since the agency’s founding during the Civil War.
- In 2025, three-quarters of IRS leadership separated from the agency. Four top civil service positions were eliminated, one position was created, and 18 positions experienced turnover.
DATA IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Data highlights:
You can also download a spreadsheet with the full list of available data, including the range of years for which data is available.
DAYS WITHOUT AN IRS COMMISSIONER
197
After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's term as acting commissioner expired on March 6, 2026, the administration left the position unfilled. The Internal Revenue Service now has neither a Senate-confirmed nor an acting commissioner. Since the advent of the position in 1862, the IRS commissioner position has never previously been vacant.
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 ↓
