The IRS collects trillions in taxes.
The IRS will be audited by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump said on Feb. 13.
“The Internal Revenue Service will be looked at like everybody else,” Trump told reporters at the White House in Washington.
He said that just about every federal agency will be examined by DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk.
“They’re doing a hell of a job. It’s an amazing job they’re doing,” Trump said. “I call it the force of super-geniuses, but it’s building, and you know they go up, and they talk to some of the people about certain deals, and they get all tongue-tied because these people get it. They’re very smart people. We need smart people.”
The IRS declined to comment on the remarks.
Trump was responding to a question about how DOGE reportedly arrived at the IRS on Thursday and whether he wanted to close the IRS. Trump said he did not expect the IRS, which is currently processing 2024 taxes, to be shuttered.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said on social media platform X, owned by Musk, that his office has heard that DOGE is at the IRS.
“That means Musk’s henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America. And if your refund is delayed, they could very well be the reason,” Wyden said.
After DOGE accessed U.S. Department of Treasury payment systems earlier in the year, a group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to the acting IRS commissioner asking what confidential information DOGE had requested from the IRS and how many taxpayers had had their confidential information accessed by DOGE.
Separately on Thursday, senior IRS executives were instructed to identify all contracts that were nonessential for termination, according to an internal email.
The email said that the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages most government contracts, is demanding they review consulting contracts under their purview and determine whether they can be justified.
The GSA deems a contract nonessential if it “merely generates a report, research, coaching, or an artifact,” the email says. “Consistent with the goals and directives of the Trump administration to eliminate waste, reduce spending, and increase efficiency, GSA has taken the first steps in a government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts.”
The GSA did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
