{
  "id": 3078150,
  "title": "‘It’s hard to know exactly what the objective of DOGE was’: Former IRS boss warns Elon Musk’s cuts to the tax agency will be felt in years to come",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/its-hard-to-know-exactly-what-the-objective-of-doge-was-former-irs",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-24T16:50:13.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/24/former-irs-acting-commissioner-doge-cuts-budget-automation/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently eliminated over a quarter of IRS employees, which may have lasting consequences. Despite this, the IRS processed 140.2 million tax returns and issued 90.4 million refunds, a slight decrease from previous years. Former acting Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell warned that the cuts will have lasting effects and that the agency's budget is becoming increasingly limited. The IRS aims to be stable, but O'Donnell stated that confidence in taxpayer compliance may diminish over time if the workforce continues to shrink.",
  "summary": "Beginning in February 2025, DOGE slashed more than a quarter of the IRS’s 100,000-person workforce.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}