Cutting IRS staffing in half over the next 10 months would mean less help and longer waits for many U.S. taxpayers and increase the risk that wealthy tax cheats escape paying what they owe.

It also would leave the Internal Revenue Service with its smallest workforce since at least the 1960s, according to official IRS data.

The Trump administration plans to cut the number of IRS employees in half by the end of the year, Bloomberg Tax reported Tuesday. But gutting the workforce so dramatically and so quickly could mean slower refunds and processing of returns for many Americans, taking the agency back to the difficulties it experienced before an infusion of tens of billions in new funding under the 2022 tax-and-climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act, according to tax professionals.

“This strikes me as foolhardy, unless your intention is to bankrupt the US government by essentially making tax-paying optional,” said Kimberly Clausing, a tax law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and a former Treasury Department official under President Joe Biden. “I think the approach they’re following so far seems to be taking a wrecking ball to the system without concern for the consequences.”

The planned job cuts in an IRS workforce that in January was roughly 100,000 would come across the agency. They would include attrition, layoffs, and two already-announced efforts: the firing of probationary employees, and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s “deferred resignation” plan, under which some employees have resigned in exchange for getting paid through this September.

About 12,000 employees have already left the agency under those two efforts.

“The IRS needs more people, not less,” said Lee Meyercord, a partner at Holland & Knight. Job cuts like these “will reverse the dramatic improvement in recent years in taxpayer service, collection, and enforcement.”

Tax cheats “will sleep better at night,” Clausing said, anticipating that audits of wealthy people would be more drawn-out, less efficient, and less probing when they happen at all.

Structure changes, uncertainty

Not everyone has the same view of the workforce changes.

Halving staff numbers “will force the IRS to rethink how it’s structured and how it operates,” said David Kautter, federal specialty tax leader at RSM US LLP and a former Treasury Department tax official during President Donald Trump’s first term. The administration still wants to collect taxes, but the huge cuts are an expression of the idea that the IRS “needs to change” and “do something different,” he said.

But large staffing cuts would mean longer waits for taxpayers to resolve disputes with the IRS, said Nikole Flax, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a former commissioner of the IRS’s Large Business & International division.

There would be “less opportunities for tax certainty” if dispute-resolution programs like appeals, fast-track settlement and advance pricing agreements become less accessible to taxpayers, she said.

Longer waits on dispute resolution would also cost companies money, in the form of continuing legal fees and interest that keeps accruing on their tax bills.

‘Distrust of the government’

Which areas will feel the greatest impact will depend on exactly where the job cuts ultimately are made, said Monte Jackel, principal at Jackel Tax Law and a former IRS official. Whether they’re from employees generally or focused on IRS divisions such as LB&I and the Office of Chief Counsel; whether they’re primarily in Washington or outside Washington.

“I don’t know how they’re going to prioritize it,” Jackel said.

The consequences of the job cuts could be long-lasting, said Janet Holtzblatt, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Next year’s filing season was already looking “shaky” anyway, she said, because IRS funding via the Inflation Reduction Act is supposed to dry up by the end of this year, and layoffs will only deepen the problems with IRS performance.

“In combination, it adds to the distrust of the government and it creates further vulnerabilities in the IRS’s ability to administer the tax code,” Holtzblatt said.

The threat of major job cuts has already decimated morale among IRS employees, said David Carrone, an IRS revenue agent and a chapter president for the National Treasury Employees Union in Arkansas and Louisiana.

“Your whole routine is gone. You’re waiting for that tap on your shoulder,” Carrone said. Employees continue to do their work, he said, but “the reality of the situation is everybody’s head is spinning.”

Kautter said the job cuts will spur the agency to adopt technology rapidly to carry out its work.

But improved IRS technology isn’t a substitute for the people needed to conduct complex audits of wealthy people’s complicated returns that are needed to force them to pay up, Carrone said.

“The computer can’t catch those.”

Aprio, a Top 25 Firm based in Atlanta, has acquired JMS Advisory Group, a firm that specializes in unclaimed property compliance and escheat process development, also based in Atlanta 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aprio ranked No. 24 on Accounting Today’s just released 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $485.34 million in annual revenue. JMS Advisory Group is bringing 12 team members and two partners to Aprio, which currently has over 2,100 team members and 205 partners. 

JMS was founded in 2006 and helps clients mitigate risk and capitalize on opportunities through managed unclaimed property compliance. The team includes attorneys, CPAs, CFEs and others.

JMS has a wide range of clients, including enterprise companies, financial institutions, credit unions, insurance companies, hospitality and health care organizations.

“As Aprio continues its rapid growth, we are committed to expanding our services to meet the evolving needs of our clients,” said Aprio CEO Richard Kopelman in a statement Tuesday. “The addition of JMS gives us the opportunity to continue strengthening our position as a future-focused advisory firm. JMS’s focus on escheat management and asset recovery not only enhances our current capabilities but also allows us to deliver even more impactful solutions to help businesses navigate complex compliance challenges.”

JMS president and CEO James Santivanez is joining Aprio as a partner and provides guidance to clients on unclaimed property and state and local tax issues. 

“We created JMS to make an impact nationally in the unclaimed property consulting industry, and I’m proud of our nearly 20-year history of helping clients mitigate risk and capitalize on opportunities resulting from accurate and properly managed unclaimed property compliance,” Santivanez said in a statement. “Joining with Aprio takes us to the next level, allowing us to build upon our success while providing even greater value to our clients. This is an exciting next step in our journey.”

JMS founder and director Sherridan Santivanez is also joining Aprio as a partner. He specializes in representing clients before state enforcement authorities and managing complex audits and voluntary disclosures for some of the world’s largest companies. She provides strategic guidance on audit preparation and navigates interactions with state and third-party auditors.

Aprio received a private equity investment last July from Charlesbank Capital Partners in Boston. The firm recently announced plans to open a law firm in Arizona known as Aprio Legal LLC, in partnership with Radix Law. (KPMG has also recently opened a law firm in Arizona known as KPMG Law US.) Aprio has completed over 20 mergers and acquisitions since 2017, adding Ridout Barrett & Co. CPAs & Advisors last December, and before that, Antares Group, Culotta, Scroggins, Hendricks & Gillespie, Aronson, Salver & Cook, Gomerdinger & Associates, Tobin & Collins, Squire + Lemkin, LBA Haynes Strand, Leaf Saltzman, RINA and Tarlow and Co.

The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy are asking for comments on their proposal for an additional pathway to CPA licensure through changes in the Uniform Accountancy Act model legislation used in states.

The AICPA and NASBA proposed the alternative pathway to CPA licensure last month and the UAA changes last September.

The UAA changes would:

• Enable states to adopt a third licensure pathway that requires earning a baccalaureate degree with an accounting concentration, completing two years of professional experience as defined by Board rule, and passing the Uniform CPA Examination;
• Shift to an “individual-based” mobility model, which allows CPAs to practice in other states with just one license; and
• Add safe harbor language to ensure CPAs who meet existing licensure requirements preserve practice privileges.

The proposals come as several states are already moving forward with their own changes, including Ohio and Virginia. Accounting organizations are hoping to increase the pipeline of accountants and make it easier to recruit and train CPAs, including people who come from other backgrounds.

The updates reflect feedback gathered during a late 2024 exposure draft period and forward-looking solutions being advanced by state CPA societies and boards of accountancy to increase flexibility for  licensure candidates while maintaining the integrity of the CPA license.

The AICPA and NASBA are asking for comments on the proposed changes by May 3, 2025. They can be submitted through this form. All comments will be published following the 60-day exposure period.

The UAA offers state legislatures and boards of accountancy a national model they can adopt in full or in part to meet the licensure needs of each jurisdiction.

The proposal would maintain the current two pathways to CPA licensure:

• Earning a  post baccalaureate degree with an accounting concentration, completing one year of professional experience as defined by Board rule, and passing the CPA exam; and,
• Earning a  baccalaureate degree with an accounting concentration,  plus an additional 30 semester credit hours , completing one year of professional experience as defined by Board rule, and passing the CPA exam.