From the NY Times online:

The Internal Revenue Service will begin laying off roughly 6,000 employees on Thursday as part of the Trump administration’s push to downsize the federal work force, three people familiar with the agency’s plans said.

The terminations will target relatively recent hires at the I.R.S., which the Biden administration had attempted to revitalize with a surge of funding and new staff, the people said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. . . .

I.R.S. managers on Wednesday began asking employees to report to the office in the coming days and bring with them their government-issued equipment, according to messages viewed by The New York Times. The I.R.S. employs roughly 100,000 accountants, lawyers and other staff across the country.

“Under an executive order, I.R.S. has been directed to terminate probationary employees who were not deemed critical to filing season,” one such email reads. “We don’t have many details that we are permitted to share, but this is all tied to compliance with the executive order.”

The layoffs come in the middle of tax filing season. Former I.R.S. officials and Democrats have warned that losing such a large number of employees could still disrupt the ability of millions of Americans’ to easily file their taxes this year, even if the layoffs are not supposed to affect those deemed “critical.” Representatives for the I.R.S. and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.