The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, gave the IRS $80 billion and the ability to hire tens of thousands of new employees to help with customer service and enforcement as well as new technology to update the tax collection agency, though congressional Republicans later clawed back some of the money.

Layoffs began Thursday for dozens of Denver-based Internal Revenue Service employees, Axios Denver has learned. The big picture: The IRS on Thursday reportedly began terminating roughly 6,000 employees nationwide — mostly relatively recent hires — as part of President Trump's push to downsize the federal workforce.