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(NewsNation) — The Department of Government Efficiency claims that it has saved the country $115 billion so far. But is this accurate?
On DOGE’s website, it claims that $115 billion has saved taxpayers around $715 each. However, according to The New York Times, DOGE has deleted hundreds of claims from its “wall of receipts” several times. This includes early March, when the agency erased $4 billion in additional savings it claimed to have made for taxpayers.
Are the cuts DOGE is making, including federal worker layoffs, actually saving money?
Internal Revenue Service layoffs
According to the Washington Post, DOGE’s plan to cut staff at the IRS by up to 50% would lead to a $400 billion increase in uncollected taxes over the next 10 years. This could lead to $2 trillion in losses.
Right now, the IRS fails to collect around $700 billion in taxes that are owed each year. The Quarterly Journal of Economics suggests that every dollar that is spent on auditing individuals in the top 10% of earners returns around $12.
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However, the Treasury Department’s inspector general has previously estimated that each hour spent auditing a high earner creates close to $5,000 more in tax revenue, according to The New York Times.
Tax season could also be a lot less efficient if these employees are cut. During the 2022 filing season, the IRS only answered less than 20% of the calls that they received. That was when the IRS had around 79,000 employees. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to cut it to around 50,000 employees.
DOGE impacts already being felt at IRS
According to The Washington Post, the IRS is already feeling the effects of DOGE. Employees are spending time waiting to use shared computers to respond to the agency’s request for weekly emails about their work.
IRS receipts, which are taxes already paid and taxes the IRS is scheduled to receive, are much lower than they were at this point last year.
The Budget Lab at Yale suggested that cutting the IRS by 50% would cost nearly $400 billion throughout the next decade. This includes losses from fewer audits and “indirect losses.”
