The Department of Government Efficiency’s cutting of Internal Revenue Service office space is consistent with the federal government’s earlier findings about excessive expenses within the tax collecting agency.
The Trump administration will reportedly close more than 110 IRS offices across the country.
In June, during the Biden-Harris administration, the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, issued a report stating a majority of IRS offices are less than half full.
DOGE is addressing long-standing problems, said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
“They like to say this is a political thing and that Elon Musk doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But the waste at the IRS and empty buildings is all documented by inspector general reports,” Norquist told The Daily Signal. “For the people who say it’s not real unless the government says it’s real, well the government has already spoken about these empty buildings.”
Office space accounted for one of the biggest IRS expenses, the report noted.
“According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it will spend approximately $600 million on real estate costs in fiscal year (FY) 2024,” the inspector general’s report says. “This includes 516 office buildings totaling approximately 22.3 million square feet. After personnel, rent is one of the IRS’s largest operating expenses.”
The General Services Administration announced in coordination with DOGE the list for terminating leases of government office space. The list includes a 135,000-square-foot IRS facility in Franklin, Tennessee; a 26,000-square-foot facility in Bloomington, Minnesota; a 25,000-square-foot office in Mesa, Arizona; and several other large facilities in San Marcos, California; Glendale, Arizona; and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Excess office space at the IRS cost taxpayers almost $11 million a year, according to the inspector general.
“At an average cost of $27.30 per RSF [rentable square feet] in FY 2023, this unneeded space is costing the IRS approximately $10.8 million per year,” the report said.
The IRS reduced its overall space footprint by about 2 million square feet since 2018, yet 51% of all IRS buildings “had a workstation occupancy rate of 50% or less,” the 2024 report said.
“The low occupancy rate is due in part to the increased use of telework and remote work, which requires less space per employee,” the report said. “Additionally, the IRS lacks a long-term space reduction plan that clearly specifies the space reductions it expects to achieve annually beyond FY 2026 and how it will sufficiently decrease its unneeded office space.”
President Donald Trump recently ordering employees who are working remotely to return to the office could be a mitigating factor. But the 2024 inspector general’s report noted the Office of Management and Budget flagged excess building use in 2015, predating the COVID-19 pandemic that led to mass federal telework.
“If Elon Musk hadn’t bought X, all this waste reported would be a nothing-burger,” Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform said. “The media would ignore it like they have ignored inspector general reports. But now it’s breaking through.”
Norquist faulted legacy media for failing to question government officials and its sympathetic coverage of the IRS.
Last week, a CNN story quoting anonymous and distressed IRS employees read: “The barnstorming, which has played out at multiple agencies, has thrown the IRS into turmoil at the height of tax season. While the business of processing returns and issuing refunds has been ongoing, sources say these DOGE actions could undermine the long-term operations of the IRS, which handles nearly all accounts receivable for the federal government.”
The outrage should be seen as welcome news, Norquist said.
“When the Left screams, ‘Don’t look behind the door,’ it makes me want to look behind the door,” Norquist said. “Oftentimes, the people screaming the loudest not to look behind the door know what’s behind the door.”
Spokespersons for the IRS and the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration did not respond to inquiries for this story.
