Elon Musk Asks if IRS Funding Should Be 'Deleted'

Elon Musk has asked social media users if funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should be "deleted" in a poll on X, formerly Twitter.

"The IRS just said it wants $20B more money," Musk, who has been appointed to co-lead the informal Department of Government Efficiency under President-elect Donald Trump, wrote on X.

Musk hosted the poll following remarks from Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo this week, who said the government agency needs $20 billion in held-back funding or it faces the risk of being unable to perform its services.

"Do you think its budget should be: Increased, Same, Decreased, Deleted," Musk asked X users, to which 60.6 percent of more than 212,000 voters opted for "Deleted." Nearly 30 percent said funding for the IRS should be decreased, while 5.6 percent said it should receive increased funding.

X users offered their opinions on the matter, with several making calls to "abolish" or "eliminate" the IRS, while others suggested a flat-tax system—a single percentage income tax rate applied to all taxpayers regardless of their income.

Newsweek contacted the IRS for comment via email outside of regular working hours.

The government agency is hoping to unlock the $20 billion in upcoming full-year budget negotiations, which need to be passed by Congress by December 20. The IRS received $80 billion in additional funding over 10 years through President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which the White House said is "dedicated to closing the tax gap by specifically enforcing tax compliance by the wealthiest tax evaders."

However, temporary budget measures passed in September this year kept the IRS and other government departments at the same level of funding, which could be changed if lawmakers pass a year-through budget at the end of 2024.

The continuing resolution currently in place, which could be extended into the New Year and Trump's second term, requires the IRS to hold $20 billion of its scheduled Inflation Reduction Act funding.

Elon Musk on November 13, 2024, in Washington D.C. The Tesla owner asked social media users whether the Internal Revenue Service should have its funding deleted, decreased, maintained or increased. Allison Robbert-Pool/GETTY

"The IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world which they don't have $20 billion, which will stop a lot of their progress," Adeyemo said to reporters on Tuesday.

"If they don't get that $20 billion that is at risk, they would run out of enforcement money at the current pace sometime in fiscal year 2025."

Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan think tank Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, backed Adeyemo's opinion. "Given the fiscal situation, we deeply hope there is no backsliding in the coming months and years with rescinding, diverting, repealing any of the revenue that is going effectively into the IRS to help with tax collection," she said.