DOGE has effected some change at the IRS, but the biggest tax changes still won’t happen until a tax bill gets passed.

BY BRIAN CONTRERAS, STAFF REPORTER @_B_CONTRERAS_

Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images

President Trump’s landmark Tax Cuts and Jobs Act may well have been the crowning domestic policy achievement of his first term in office. Now that he’s back in the White House for round two, tax policy could once again prove to be a legacy-builder—but if that’s going to happen, it hasn’t happened yet.

One hundred days after his inauguration, and with key chunks of the 2017 TCJA set to expire at the end of this year, the clock is ticking for Trump to either renew or reshape the tax landscape. But for now the status quo remains in effect as Republicans on Capitol Hill try to figure out a tax and budget plan that will please both the party’s budget hawks and anti-tax contingents.

Meanwhile, Trump’s interests seem to lie more in tariffs—which he has suggested could replace federal income tax altogether—and DOGE is paring down America’s tax collection infrastructure as it conducts major lay-offs at the Internal Revenue Service.

“It is hard to recall a time of more tax-related policy drivers being up in the air,” says David Snider, founder and CEO of the tax services firm Harness, pointing to recent leadership shake-ups at the IRS and the calls for a criminal investigation into firms with ties to Trump’s pick to run the agency. “The result is a high degree of uncertainty on tax policy in 2026, the level of tax enforcement and IRS service levels.”

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