The Internal Revenue Service made some improvements to its IRS Individual Online Account for taxpayers, adding W-2 and 1095 information returns for 2023 and 2024, but reports circulated about cutbacks to the agency, with layoffs and closures of taxpayer assistance centers scheduled.

The first information returns to be added online for taxpayers are Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement and Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement. The forms will be available for tax years 2023 and 2024 under the Records and Status tab in the taxpayer’s Individual Online Account. 

In the months ahead, the IRS plans to add more information return documents to the Individual Online Account. 

Only information return documents issued in the taxpayer’s name will be available in their Online Account. The taxpayer’s spouse needs to log into their own Online Account to retrieve their information return documents. That’s true whether they file a joint or separate return. State and local tax information, including state and local tax information on the Form W-2, won’t be available on Individual Online Account. The IRS said filers should continue to keep the records mailed to them by the original reporter. 

The IRS had been adding more technology tools, including Business Tax Accounts and Tax Pro Accounts, in recent years thanks to the extra funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. However, layoffs of between 6,000 and 7,000 employees and hiring freezes at the IRS in the midst of tax season threaten to stall such improvements, according to a group of former IRS commissioners. Both IRS commissioner Danny Werfel and acting commissioner Douglas O’Donnell have stepped down in recent weeks. Over the weekend, dismissal notices went out to 18F, a federal agency that helped develop the IRS’s Direct File program and other tools like the Login.gov authentication service. The Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have reportedly made plans to shut down at least 113 of the IRS’s in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers around the country after tax season, according to the Washington Post, either terminating their leases or letting them expire. Werfel had been using the funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to expand the number of Taxpayer Assistance Centers, opening or reopening more than 50 of them for a total of 360 nationwide.

A group of Democrats on Congress’s tax-writing committee criticized the move to close the centers. “Ask any congressional district office and you’ll hear about the challenges constituents face during filing season, which is why Democrats ushered in a once-in-a-generation investment in modernizing the IRS and delivering the customer service the people deserve,” said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, Tax Subcommittee ranking member Mike Thompson, D-Califonia, and Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Terri Sewell, D-Aabama, in a statement last week. “This administration is hellbent on destroying our progress. It wasn’t enough for them to fire nearly 7,000 IRS employees in the middle of filing season, but now, they are skirting federal mandatory notice procedures and reportedly shuttering over 100 offices that offer taxpayer assistance — an absolute nightmare for taxpayers. As required by the Taxpayer First Act, a 90-day notice must be given to both the public and the Congress before closing any Taxpayer Assistance Centers. We need answers now. We are demanding the Administration provide a list of the centers they plan to close — it’s the least the ‘most transparent Administration’ can do.”

Lawmakers are also concerned about reports of immigration officials pushing the IRS to disclose the home address of 700,000 people suspected of living in the U.S. illegally. According to the Washington Post, the IRS had initially rejected the request from the Department of Homeland Security, but with the departure of O’Donnell last week, the new acting commissioner, Melanie Krause, has indicated she is open to exploring how to comply with the request. However, that move could violate taxpayer data privacy laws, one Senate Democrat warned

“The Trump administration is attempting to illegally weaponize our tax system against people it deems undesirable, and if anybody believes this abuse will begin and end with immigrants, they’re dead wrong,” said Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, in a statement. “Trump doesn’t care about taxpayer privacy laws and has likely promised to pardon staff who help him violate them, but those individuals would be wise to remember that Trump can’t pardon them out from under the heavy civil damages they’re risking with the choices they make in the coming days, weeks and months.”

KPMG elected Tim Walsh as its next U.S. chair and CEO, and Atif Zaim as its next U.S. deputy chair.

Walsh will succeed Paul Knopp, and Zaim will succeed Laura Newinski, for five-year terms that begin on July 1. Knopp and Newinski’s five-year terms end June 30.

“Tim Walsh and Atif Zaim’s vision, integrity, strategic acumen and dedication to our clients will propel us forward as we compete and win in the market,” Knopp said in a statement. “This team is committed to innovation, anticipating client needs and delivering above and beyond what the market demands of KPMG.” 

Walsh has spent over 33 years at KPMG and is currently national managing partner of U.S. audit operations. He previously served as New York metro audit partner-in-charge, industry sector leader for the consumer products and retail businesses in the New York metro area, and lead partner-in-charge of the venture capital practice in New York. Walsh was also a reviewing partner for the firm’s matters relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Our driving priority is ensuring that we’re ready for that future — more agile, more strategic and more accountable than ever before,” Walsh said in a statement to employees today. “This is our moment — to be the best at what we do, to offer the most exciting opportunities and most meaningful client work, and to invest in our collective growth.”

“We will prioritize ensuring access to opportunity, offering enriching and career-defining experiences and lifelong learning, supporting your individual career journey, and fostering authentic connections and friendships,” he added.

Zaim is currently KPMG’s U.S. consulting leader and former national managing principal of the advisory practice. Previously, he was the national managing principal of the advisory practice and led the U.S. customer and operations service line for the firm’s consulting practice. He joined KPMG in 1994 in London, moved to New York in 1998 and became a partner in 2003.

“We will be bold and agile in this moment of change,” Zaim said in a statement. “KPMG will continue to offer clients access to the best people and services, and the new and necessary solutions to accelerate transformation. Tim and I are dedicated to engaging the C-suite to remain at the forefront of innovation, while continuing to foster a high-performance culture that supports all our people.”

“This is the right team for this incredible moment for the firm,” Newinski said in a statement. “Tim and Atif’s commitment to culture and people, combined with their understanding of the market, has shaped a powerful vision for our firm that’s truly exciting.”

President Donald Trump is bending Congress to his will, hobbling minority Democrats with an everything-at-once strategy and rallying fractious Republicans behind his politically risky tax cut plan and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting crusade. 

That’s the backdrop for Trump’s scheduled address to Congress on Tuesday, five weeks into his second term and just over a week before a March 14 U.S. funding deadline that would ordinarily serve as a point of political leverage for the opposition party.

But Democrats are squeamish about a disruptive government shutdown and struggling to stymie Trump’s agenda, turning to the courts to blunt the effects of the president’s actions.

It’s all a remarkable contrast to Trump’s first term, when congressional Democrats were the face of an energetic resistance. Trump then failed to get Congress to rein in the burgeoning budget and expended political capital to wrangle his own party behind a tax cut bill. He and fellow Republicans also suffered the political fallout from two government shutdowns.

Now, however, an emboldened and experienced Trump benefits from a more compliant Congress, which has shrugged off legally dubious moves like unilaterally slashing the federal workforce and ending government contracts. His tax plan, which requires only a simple majority in both chambers, could be enacted as soon as May.

Democrats are training their attacks on that plan, which uses deep cuts in safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food aid to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. But if Trump’s momentum keeps apace, at least through the spring, Democratic pushback will likely amount to little more than a 2026 election attack. 

Shutdown deadline

Democrats have, for weeks, tried to leverage talks to avert a government shutdown to tie Musk’s hands. But while Republicans need their votes to keep the government open, Democrats’ political pragmatism weakens their hand. 

“I’m not for shutting the government down,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic spending negotiator in the House. 

Others in the party — even those with large numbers of federal workers in their states — expressed similar defeatist sentiments. 

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said he’d like the spending bill to include language to prevent large government layoffs. “Whether that is practical I don’t know,” he said. 

And Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen questioned whether Trump, who has ignored Congress’s constitutional power of the purse, would even abide by any new legislative constraints to his power. 

The emerging GOP plan ahead of March 14 in the House is a stopgap bill lasting to Sept. 30, essentially extending current funding to the end of the fiscal year. 

They’ll need to court Democrats in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster. But the final compromise will likely amount to a status quo for DOGE — no new constraints or freedoms. 

Tax cuts

On taxes, Congress is moving with much more rapidity to enact a plan than in 2017, giving businesses and individuals more lead time to adapt to looming changes. 

Trump’s campaign proposals to expand breaks to end taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security, once considered wishful thinking, are even gaining momentum despite their costs.

Last week’s dramatic, down-to-the-wire vote on the $4.5 trillion House tax cut outline was a milestone in the GOP’s evolution toward unity, with Trump quelling a rebellion from fiscal conservatives through a few last-minute phone conversations. 

The budget plan would add nearly $3 trillion in deficits over 10 years and raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. Nonetheless spending hardliners voted for the compromise.

“It’s a new day,” said conservative Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

In the Senate, Republicans are eyeing a budget gimmick counting the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as zero dollars because it’s current policy. That gives them ample room for even more breaks for businesses and individuals.   

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who discussed the idea last week with Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, would need to sell fiscal hawks on it. But several, like Texas Representative Chip Roy, have signaled they’d go along with it, in exchange for another trillion dollars in spending cuts. 

That could lift the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction and end the estate tax, while stopping taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits. Trump may even be able to convince Congress to go along with $5,000 stimulus checks he has floated.

North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said Trump is the most powerful president he has seen on budget matters.

“This is his second time around. He’s got the experience,” Hoeven said, pointing to Trump’s own lobbying push to get the House budget plan passed. 

But it also plays into Democrats’ 2026 strategy, banking that cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and other programs would be widely unpopular with voters, giving them an opportunity to take over congressional control. One Democratic political action committee, House Majority Forward PAC, is running ads in swing districts starting Monday on cuts to Medicaid, which insures nearly one-quarter of Americans. 

 “Today’s ad is just the beginning, and we will make sure every American knows exactly who is responsible,” Mike Smith, the PAC’s president, said in a statement.