Whether you sat down and finished your taxes months ago or you put it off until recently,

taxes are one of those tedious but required parts of life. Once you send them off to the IRS,

you assume that's that. The agency can handle your return.

In short order, the IRS will send you a refund or take some money you still owe.

This tech season, though, things look a little less clear.

The Trump administration has caused tumult at the IRS over the past year.

25,000 employees left the agency in 2025. The entity Doge

successfully terminated around 4,000 probationary employees who were new to the agency, and

approximately 21,000 took deferred resignations or quit. Meanwhile, over three-quarters of the

agency's senior leadership left, and Republicans in Congress took back

billions of dollars the IRS had received to improve its systems and then gave it more tax

code changes to enforce. What's the effect of all that on the tax filing season? I'm Jen White. You're

listening to the 1A podcast. Today, we talk about taxes and our democracy. What's the link? And how important

is it that our main tax agency, whether you're fond of it or not, functions well. We'll be back

with answers to these questions and more after this quick break. Stay with us. Welcome back to the 1A podcast.

We're talking about changes at the IRS under President Trump's second administration

and what that means for you and your taxes.

Let's get into our conversation and meet our guests.

Joining us in studio is Richard Rubin.

He's a U.S. tax policy reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Richard, welcome back to the program.

Thanks for having me.

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