Latest news with #DepartmentOfGovernmentEfficiency
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Appeals court puts peace institute back in Trump administration hands with stay of lower court
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court panel on Friday stayed a lower court ruling that blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with dismantling the U.S. Institute of Peace , an organization taken over in March by the Department of Government Efficiency, then led by Elon Musk. The three-judge panel with the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the stay, saying the Trump administration's appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell's opinion would likely succeed on the merits. The stay added that the president would face 'irreparable harm from not being able to fully exercise his executive powers.'
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Trump's Budget Bill Could Complicate 2026 Tax Filing Season After IRS Cuts, Watchdog Warns
The budget bill championed by President Donald Trump could complicate next year's tax filing season after the IRS lost 25 percent of its employees through staffing cuts, an independent watchdog reported Wednesday. The IRS workforce has fallen from 102,113 workers to 75,702 over the past year, according to the latest National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress. The report Wednesday offered the first official numbers on the IRS job losses associated with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Most of the employees took the 'fork in the road' resignation offer from DOGE rather than waiting to get laid off. Some of the findings from the report: Taxpayers will likely see effects of staffing reductions. The Trump administration's efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy led to a mass exodus of probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protections and were offered buyouts through a deferred resignation program. More than 17,500 IRS workers took that route. The biggest cuts were in taxpayer services, the small business/self-employed office, and information technology. The report noted that the Republican administration's proposed budget includes a 20 percent reduction in IRS funding next year. That's a 37 percent reduction when taking into account the supplemental funding in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act that Republicans previously stripped away. 'A reduction of that magnitude is likely to impact taxpayers and potentially the revenue collected,' wrote Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers' rights. The 2026 tax season could be precarious. Collins said the 2025 filing season was one of the most successful filing seasons in recent memory, though she warned that the 2026 season could be rocky. 'With the IRS workforce reduced by 26 percent and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year's filing season,' Collins wrote. 'It is critical that the IRS begin to take steps now to prepare.' She said that halfway through the year there were concerns that the IRS had not yet undertaken key preparation steps, including hiring and training seasonal and permanent employees. Trump's package could add a new layer of problems. The report warned about the possibility of understaffing to manage new provisions from Trump's legislative package if it's enacted. 'Several provisions will retroactively affect the 2025 tax year, thus impacting millions of taxpayers and requiring the IRS to quickly update tax year 2025 tax forms and programming for the 2026 filing season,' the report said. Specifically, the House bill retroactively prohibits the IRS from allowing or making payment of Employee Retention Credit claims filed after Jan. 31, 2024. The report also said the IRS historically receives more calls in years following significant changes in tax law, so it may need additional employees and improved digital tools to maintain its level of service. Identity theft cases are still piling up. The IRS is dealing with delays in resolving self-reported identity theft victim assistance cases–taking up to 20 months to resolve, the report said. As of the end of the 2025 filing season, the IRS was handling about 387,000 of these cases. That is a slight improvement from the more than 22 months it took to resolve identity theft cases as noted in last year's report, which outlined roughly 500,000 unresolved cases in its inventory. 'The cycle time remains unacceptably long,' Collins said. 'I continue to urge the agency to focus on dramatically shortening the time it takes to resolve identity theft cases so it does not force victims, particularly those dependent on their tax refunds, to wait nearly two years to receive their money.'
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Trump's budget bill could complicate 2026 tax filing season after IRS cuts, watchdog warns
The budget bill championed by President Donald Trump could complicate next year's tax filing season after the IRS lost one-quarter of its employees through staffing cuts, an independent watchdog reported Wednesday. The IRS workforce has fallen from 102,113 workers to 75,702 over the past year, according to the latest National Taxpayer Advocate report to Congress. The report Wednesday offered the first official numbers on the IRS job losses associated with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Most of the employees took the 'fork in the road" resignation offer from DOGE rather than waiting to get laid off. Some of the findings from the report: Taxpayers will likely see effects of staffing reductions The Trump administration's efforts to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy to a mass exodus of probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protections and were offered buyouts through a 'deferred resignation program.' More than 17,500 IRS workers took that route. The biggest cuts were in taxpayer services, the small business/self-employed office and information technology. The report noted that the Republican administration's proposed budget includes a 20% reduction in IRS funding next year. That's a 37% reduction when taking into account the supplemental funding in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act that Republicans previously stripped away. 'A reduction of that magnitude is likely to impact taxpayers and potentially the revenue collected," wrote Erin M. Collins, who leads the organization assigned to protect taxpayers' rights. The 2026 tax season could be precarious Collins said the 2025 filing season was 'one of the most successful filing seasons in recent memory,' though she warned that the 2026 season could be rocky. 'With the IRS workforce reduced by 26% and significant tax law changes on the horizon, there are risks to next year's filing season,' Collins wrote. "It is critical that the IRS begin to take steps now to prepare.' She said that, halfway through the year, there were concerns that the IRS had not yet undertaken key preparation steps, including hiring and training seasonal and permanent employees. Trump's package could add new layer of problems The report warned about the possibility of understaffing to manage new provisions from Trump's legislative package if it's enacted. 'Several provisions will retroactively affect the 2025 tax year, thus impacting millions of taxpayers and requiring the IRS to quickly update tax year 2025 tax forms and programming for the 2026 filing season," the report said. Specifically, the House bill retroactively prohibits the IRS from allowing or making payment of Employee Retention Credit claims filed after Jan. 31, 2024. The report also said the IRS historically receives more calls in years following significant changes in tax law, so it may need additional employees and improved digital tools to maintain its level of service. Identity theft cases are still piling up The IRS is dealing with delays in resolving self-reported identity theft victim assistance cases — taking up to 20 months to resolve, the report said. As of the end of the 2025 filing season, the IRS was handling about 387,000 of these cases. That is a slight improvement from the more than 22 months it took to resolve identity theft cases, as noted in last year's report, which outlined roughly 500,000 unresolved cases in its inventory. 'The cycle time remains unacceptably long," Collins said. 'I continue to urge the agency to focus on dramatically shortening the time it takes' to resolved identity theft cases, "so it does not force victims, particularly those dependent on their tax refunds, to wait nearly two years to receive their money.'
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Global Economic Outlook: US, Europe Grow More Slowly Than Expected Amid Trade, Geopolitical Tensions
Scope Ratings (Scope) has revised its forecast for US growth to 1.8% this year from a previous forecast of 2.7% last October (Table 1), while forecasting growth of 1.8% in 2026. US output rose 2.8% last year. The European rating agency's forecast is for global growth to slow to 3.0% in 2025 from 3.3% in 2024 before continuing at a moderate rate of 3.1% next year. Download Scope Ratings' mid-year 2025 Economic Outlook. Medium-term macro risks remain negatively skewed. Scope projects that interest rates will remain above the pre-pandemic levels amid structurally higher inflation. The cut to US growth forecasts for this year comes amid trade uncertainties and cuts in government spending by the Department of Government Efficiency. As regards Germany, Scope forecasts no growth this year compared with a forecast last October of 0.9% – the economy contracted 0.2% in 2024 – but sees output in Europe's largest economy expanding by 1.2% next year. Germany's sluggish performance this year will drag euro-area growth to a less-than-expected 1.1%, 0.5pps below Scope Ratings' former forecast, before a slight rebound in 2026 to 1.5%. Spain and economies of the euro-area periphery – such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal – continue to outperform the rest of the euro area. Spain's forecast growth this year of 2.5%, revised up by 0.3pps, contrasts with France's of 0.7%, cut 0.6pps, and Italy's of 0.6%, revised down by 0.4pps. Table 1: Scope Ratings' growth forecasts, summary %, projections as of 20 June 2025 Scope expects stronger growth in Europe in 2026 as defence spending rises and governments implement measures to increase investment. Looking ahead, Scope sees four adverse factors weighing on the outlook for the global economy and global credit. First, there are the on-again, off-again escalations and de-escalations of trade tensions posing recessionary risks for the global economy. Secondly, threats are increasing for financial stability amplified by the latest wave of financial deregulation spear headed by the United States. Another factor is the budgetary challenges that governments face, triggering more frequent market re-appraisals of sovereign debt risks. Finally, there are heightened geopolitical risks, not least Russia's continuing war in Ukraine and the recent escalation of conflict between Israel and Iran. The rating agency assumes higher steady-state borrowing rates than the rates that prevailed before the cost-of-living crisis. Many central banks have paused rate reductions, even if the Federal Reserve and Bank of England may resume them later this year whereas the Bank of Japan is gradually increasing rates. Sustained higher borrowing rates and elevated financial-market valuations amid financial deregulation threaten corrections and present risks for financial stability and global credit conditions. Presentation: Scope's 2025 mid-year economic and credit outlook Data: Scope's mid-year 2025 economic projections For a look at all of today's economic events, check out our economic calendar. Dennis Shen is the Chair of the Macro Economic Council and Lead Global Economist of Scope Group. The rating agency's Macroeconomic Council brings together the company's credit opinions from multiple issuer classes: sovereign and public sector, financial institutions, corporates, structured finance and project finance. This article was originally posted on FX Empire From Tariffs to Tags: The Price Hike Reality for US Shoppers (Part 1) Bulgaria Poised to Join the Euro: An Interview with Scope Ratings' Dennis Shen Big Money Lifts Disney 1,427% Since First Outlier Buy Royal Caribbean Seeing Inflows Ulta Beauty Sales Growth Attracts Inflows Rare Bullish Inflow Signals Cause IMAX to Nearly Double
Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Ex-congressman Billy Long confirmed as commissioner of the IRS, an agency he once sought to abolish
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri was confirmed on Thursday to lead the Internal Revenue Service, giving the beleaguered agency he once sought to abolish a permanent commissioner after months of acting leaders and massive staffing cuts that have threatened to derail next year's tax filing season. The Senate confirmed Long on a 53-44 vote despite Democrats' concerns about the Republican's past work for a firm that pitched a fraud-ridden coronavirus pandemic-era tax break and about campaign contributions he received after President Donald Trump nominated him to serve as IRS commissioner. While in Congress, where he served from 2011 to 2023, Long sponsored legislation to get rid of the IRS, the agency he is now tasked with leading. A former auctioneer, Long has no background in tax administration. Long will take over an IRS undergoing massive change, including layoffs and voluntary retirements of tens of thousands of workers and accusations that then-Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency mishandled sensitive taxpayer data. Unions and advocacy organizations have sued to block DOGE's access to the information. The IRS was one of the highest-profile agencies still without a Senate-confirmed leader. Before Long's confirmation, the IRS shuffled through four acting leaders, including one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants' tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another whose appointment led to a fight between Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Long worked with a firm that distributed the pandemic-era employee retention tax credit. That tax credit program was eventually shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel determined that it was fraudulent. Democrats called for a criminal investigation into Long's connections to other alleged tax credit loopholes. The lawmakers allege that firms connected to Long duped investors into spending millions of dollars to purchase fake tax credits. Long appeared before the Senate Finance Committee last month and denied any wrongdoing related to his involvement in the tax credit scheme. Ahead of the confirmation vote, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles blasting the requisite FBI background check conducted on Long as a political appointee as inadequate. 'These issues were not adequately investigated,' Wyden wrote. 'In fact, the FBI's investigation, a process dictated by the White House, seemed designed to avoid substantively addressing any of these concerning public reports. It's almost as if the FBI is unable to read the newspaper.' Democratic lawmakers have also written to Long and his associated firms detailing concerns with what they call unusually timed contributions made to Long's defunct 2022 Senate campaign committee shortly after Trump nominated him. The IRS faces an uncertain future under Long. Tax experts have voiced concerns that the 2026 filing season could be hampered by the departure of so many tax collection workers. In April, The Associated Press reported that the IRS planned to cut as many as 20,000 staffers — up to 25% of the workforce. An IRS representative on Thursday confirmed the IRS had shed about that many workers but said the cuts amounted to approximately the same number of IRS jobs added under the Biden administration. The fate of the Direct File program, the free electronic tax return filing system developed during President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, is also unclear. Republican lawmakers and commercial tax preparation companies had complained it was a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist, although they are hard to use. Long said during his confirmation hearing that it would be one of the first programs that come up for discussion if he were confirmed. Long is not the only Trump appointee to support dismantling an agency he was assigned to manage. Linda McMahon, the current education secretary, has repeatedly said she is trying to put herself out of a job by closing the federal department and transferring its work to the states. Rick Perry, Trump's energy secretary during his first term, called for abolishing the Energy Department during his bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the Internal Revenue Service at
