Finding help to file your taxes will be harder this year because President Donald Trump’s administration plans to close at least 113 IRS taxpayer assistance centers, which provide free help to tax filers, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Experts are also warning that Trump's decision to fire thousands of IRS employees in the middle of tax season could cause a delay in taxpayers receiving their returns.
But now, the government is canceling the leases on 113 of the roughly 360 taxpayer assistance centers in the U.S. That means the Trump administration is cutting about one-third of the centers, which will make it harder for Americans to receive the assistance they need.
The IRS did not return The Washington Post’s request for comment on whether the assistance centers will relocate or close altogether. But the fact that the IRS is shuttering the centers in the middle of tax season, when taxpayers must prepare their returns and file them by the April 15 deadline, could make it harder for taxpayers to obtain the help they need.
“Sometimes you need to sit down and talk to someone,” Nina Olson, the former national taxpayer advocate at the IRS who now serves as executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, told The Washington Post.
The Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Closing the offices is part of Trump and co-President Elon Musk's effort to slash the federal budget—a slapdash effort that is causing chaos and threatening public health and other necessary services for veterans, Social Security recipients, 9/11 survivors, and now every taxpayer in America.
It’s also part of their effort to decimate the IRS, which Trump wants to abolish and replace with tariffs, a regressive move that would cause low-income Americans to pay a larger portion of their earnings than the richest.
The chaos Trump and Musk are causing is leading to an uproar against GOP lawmakers at town halls across the country. That’s an early sign that the cuts could be a political problem for Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans are brushing off the backlash.
“The videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday on CNN, which is a lie. “These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats.”
As more and more Americans feel the pain of the cuts Trump and Musk are making, the anger from constituents will only grow. And Republicans ignore it at their own peril.
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