Elon Musk asks if the IRS should be ‘deleted’ after agency begs for $20 billion – here’s how X users responded

Billionaire Elon Musk asked social media users Wednesday if the Internal Revenue Service should be “deleted” — a day after a top Biden-Harris administration official urged Congress to give the federal agency $20 billion.

“The IRS just said it wants $20B more money,” Musk, who will co-lead informal Department of Government Efficiency under President-elect Donald Trump, wrote on X.

The world’s richest person then asked users for their thoughts on the tax authority’s budget situation.

“Do you think its budget should be: Increased, Same, Decreased, Deleted,” Musk asked in a poll.

More than 60% of X users preferred having the IRS’s budget “deleted.”

Only 3.9% said the federal agency’s budget should remain the same, 5.6% felt it deserved more money and 29.9% said the IRS budget should be decreased.

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The Tesla CEO’s tweet follows Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo making a desperate public plea for billions of dollars in more funding for the IRS.

“The IRS is going to potentially have to make dramatic decisions about stopping hiring and starting to budget for a world in which they don’t have $20 billion, which will stop a lot of their progress,” Adeyemo told reporters on a press call 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,” he added.

The massive shortfall appears to be the result of text included in stopgap congressional legislation passed in September to keep the federal government funded until Dec. 20.

Congressional Republicans have tucked a $20 billion IRS enforcement cut into the government funding legislation, according to the Wall Street Journal.