The IRS Is Getting Musked: Government ‘Efficiency’ Now Means Letting Billionaires Dodge Taxes Faster
Gutting the IRS isn’t about efficiency—it’s about making sure the rich never get audited.
The Trump administration has found an innovative way to make the tax system fairer—by gutting the agency that enforces it.
In what can only be described as the most Muskian approach to governance yet, the IRS is set to lose up to half its workforce through a mix of layoffs, buyouts, and deferred resignations (a fancy way of saying “we’ll pay you to quit before we fire you”).
The mastermind behind this Department of Government Efficiency is, of course, none other than Elon Musk, because who better to streamline tax collection than a guy whose companies have made an art form out of avoiding it?
Musk’s efficiency doctrine—famously demonstrated by Twitter’s free fall into chaos—has now found its way to federal tax enforcement.
Let’s break it down:
The Plan: Make the IRS So Dysfunctional That Billionaires Can’t Be Audited
The IRS currently employs around 90,000 people across the country, tasked with ensuring that taxes are collected and, occasionally, that the ultra-wealthy don’t get away with too much fraud.
But under the new plan, the agency will be slashed by up to 50%, making it effectively useless.
John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner, warned that such a massive reduction would make the IRS “dysfunctional”—which, if you’re a billionaire, is music to your ears.
After all, it’s hard to audit offshore tax havens when there’s no one left to do the auditing.
Priorities: Tax Enforcement Down, Immigration Raids Up
If that wasn’t enough, the Trump administration has a new gig for IRS employees: helping Homeland Security enforce immigration laws.
That’s right. Instead of auditing corporate tax returns or investigating shady billion-dollar deductions, IRS agents may soon be reassigned to deporting people. This is like taking an SEC investigator and asking them to moonlight as a traffic cop.
It’s not that the administration hates government workers—it just prefers them armed and rounding up immigrants instead of, you know, ensuring Amazon pays any taxes.
‘Deferred Resignation Program’: A Euphemism for ‘Please Leave’
The administration is also offering a “deferred resignation program,” which is a dystopian way of saying: “We’ll bribe you to quit now so we don’t have to fire you later.” The catch? IRS employees working the 2025 tax season aren’t allowed to accept the buyout until mid-May—after the tax deadline.
Translation: “Get those tax returns processed before we show you the door.”
Who Benefits? Who Loses?
• Billionaires & Corporations: They win big. With fewer IRS agents, audits will plummet, loopholes will thrive, and tax avoidance will become even easier.
• The American Public: Loses. A weakened IRS means less tax enforcement, which means less revenue for public services (roads, schools, Social Security—tiny things like that).
• Middle-Class & Small Businesses: They’ll likely bear the brunt of enforcement, as IRS resources will be too scarce to go after complex corporate tax schemes but just sufficient enough to audit a guy who accidentally Venmo’d himself $600.
The Endgame: Make It Make Sense
Let’s be real—this isn’t about efficiency; it’s about ensuring that the ultra-rich can keep playing a rigged game without referees.
The IRS wasn’t bloated to begin with—if anything, it was already understaffed and struggling to enforce existing tax laws. But now? It’s being gutted on purpose.
This is the equivalent of firing all the referees mid-game and telling the players to police themselves. The only winners in that scenario are the ones who were cheating all along.
So if you were hoping for a more fair tax system, here’s the new plan: get rich enough that the government stops bothering to check your receipts.
That’s the point.
Zahead, Chaos Analyst