According to TIGTA, the IRS had lost roughly 19% of its staff (19,000 employees) as of October 2025, including 8,300 workers tasked with key filing-season functions, such as processing returns, providing customer service and updating computer systems. In IT specifically, the IRS went from 7,091 staffers in October 2021 to 8,504 as of October 2024 and back down to 7,135 now.