Under Trump, the IRS’ audit revenue falls in predictable and damaging ways

Donald Trump’s second term has been a difficult one for the IRS. The tax agency has struggled with resignations, DOGE-imposed disruptions and the abandonment of a much-needed modernization initiative.

Complicating matters, there’s been a revolving door at the IRS administrator’s office. In the first seven months of Trump’s second term, seven different people led the agency. The eighth was Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who already had another important full-time job. Since March, no one has served as IRS commissioner, although the White House tapped Frank Bisignano to serve as the agency’s chief executive officer (an office that’s never existed before), despite the fact that he also has a full-time job running the Social Security Administration.

With all of this tumult, it’s tempting to ask how the IRS can be expected to fulfill its core functions. The answer to that question is that it’s not completing some of its core functions. The New York Times reported: