President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget calls for slashing the IRS budget to $9.8 billion, its lowest funding level since 2002. That includes a drastic 33% cut to enforcement, a move that’s both shortsighted and damaging.

A bill advanced July 21 by the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee would go even further by reducing the IRS budget to $9.5 billion.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has indicated that it is targeting waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government and those having interactions with government agencies — in some cases, Social Security recipients. There is no doubt there is waste within the IRS, as there is throughout the federal government. The Trump administration’s efforts, however, to defund the IRS especially in the area of enforcement will exacerbate fraud and abuse in the federal tax system, which runs counter to DOGE objectives. Defunding the agency tasked with making sure everyone pays their taxes will only embolden cheaters and worsen the very fraud the administration claims it wants to stop.

The IRS enforcement reduction will clearly exacerbate a considerable problem created by the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law this summer, which will result in ballooning the federal deficit through tax cuts. Less IRS enforcement will certainly mean less revenue collected.

This proposed slashing of funding is on top of the significant prior and likely future claw-back of the special $80 billion that Congress had enacted a........

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