Musk's DOGE guts IRS enforcement as SpaceX carries $1.9B in disputed tax breaks

Elon Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the cost-cutting initiative that drove deep reductions at the IRS through 2025. A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report found the agency lost roughly 31 percent of its revenue agents — about 3,600 auditors — in the first months of the cuts; experts cited by CBS News estimated the lost enforcement capacity could forgo on the order of $323 billion in revenue over a decade. Separately, SpaceX — which Musk owns and runs — discloses roughly $1.9 billion in "uncertain tax benefits" in its SEC filings: tax positions the company itself indicates would more likely than not be disallowed if the IRS examined them. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy's Matthew Gardner laid out the conflict: by hollowing out the agency most likely to challenge those positions, Musk reduced the audit risk to a $1.9 billion benefit accruing to himself and SpaceX's other owners. (Bloomberg Tax separately reported that the same IRS staff cuts left tax practitioners without enforcement guidance on the new spaceport-bond rules.)