The IRS is preparing to get rid of half of its workforce, according to two media reports – part of a blitz by the Trump administration to reduce the size and scope of the federal government during its first hundred days in office.

The potential staffing reduction represents a 180-degree course correction for the national tax collector from the substantial funding boost and operational overhaul the agency began to implement during the Biden administration.

It would likely contribute to a longer-term trend at the agency of diminished audit rates, minimal tax enforcement for the most sophisticated taxpayers, and the use of outdated technologies that’s been going on for decades.

However, administrative experts caution that the hiring downgrade may result more from allowing the existing IRS workforce to age out and retire — a process known as attrition — than from firings and buyouts.

“This could be a stretched-out process as opposed to an immediate reduction,” Janet Holtzblatt, a former tax policy official in the Treasury Department and senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told The Hill.

“Going into this decade, 60 percent of the IRS workforce was reaching retirement age in the next six years. They could stretch this out over time and have a hiring freeze,” she said.

The Hill reached out to the White House, the Treasury Department, the IRS, the National Taxpayer Advocate, and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) for more information.

A Treasury spokesperson told........

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