Since 1934, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Tax Division has been responsible for handling both DOJ’s civil and criminal tax enforcement. The Tax Division works with the IRS to oversee criminal investigations and the prosecution of tax crimes (supervising and coordinating with local United States Attorneys) and engage in civil enforcement activities including corporate integrity work, enforcing IRS summonses, and obtaining injunctions against illegal or abusive tax promotions. These attorneys also represent the government in tax refund suits filed in the Court of Federal Claims or the United States District Courts. The Tax Division employs over 300 attorneys, making it the second largest tax litigation function in the federal government after the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. These attorneys are specialists who develop deep knowledge of tax enforcement over their careers. However, the government is in the process of eliminating the Tax Division. The stated reason for the change is that elimination of the Tax Division “provides more oversight to the tax enforcement function and more effectively distributes resources,” per DOJ’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Performance Summary. 

Presently, the Tax Division is led by an Assistant Attorney General with four deputies. These are usually career tax attorneys with significant experience and specialized knowledge in administration of the tax laws. These positions are slated to be eliminated along with the Tax Division.

Despite the elimination of the Tax Division, tax enforcement is not expected to stop or even lessen. Instead, the Tax Division’s responsibilities will be spread throughout DOJ—civil tax enforcement will be moved to the Civil Division of DOJ, and criminal enforcement will be moved to the Criminal Division. It is likely that some tax enforcement responsibility will devolve to United States Attorneys’ Offices as well, as the initial reorganization plan (now abandoned) would have sent all tax enforcement responsibility to these offices. Within the Criminal and Civil Divisions, new tax sections will be formed with the former Tax Division attorneys being moved into them.

One of the current goals of the Tax Division’s mission is uniform enforcement of the tax laws—ensuring that consistent positions are taken across different cases, both civilly and criminally, in conjunction between both DOJ and IRS. By decentralizing tax enforcement, some commentators believe there is a risk of fragmented government responses. For example, in some cases, when it receives a referral from the IRS, DOJ Tax currently will push back and suggest a non-litigation resolution, a result that is usually preferable to the taxpayer than getting sued. At other times, practitioners find that the only way to resolve administrative tax disputes is to sue the government for a refund in District Court. Many practitioners have had experiences where DOJ has conceded a case after doing its initial investigation and before filing an answer, because its attorneys identified that the employees considering a refund claim at IRS made a mistake. The elimination of the Tax Division could potentially impact consistent handling of matters in these types of circumstances.

Whether the change ultimately leads to less consistent enforcement, it is highly unlikely that it will by itself lead to an actual drop in the amount of enforcement. Currently, the Tax Division has limited control over its workload—its cases are referred to it from the IRS Office of Chief Counsel or arise because a taxpayer filed suit against the government (and because the Department of Justice, not IRS, is authorized to defend suits in federal district courts). And IRS has actually been hiring attorneys, not further reducing staff, in recent months. So, if the referral process remains the same, the tax enforcement workload could increase.

The exact timing of the elimination of the Tax Division is not certain, owing to delays in finalizing the memorandum authorizing the action and the current government shutdown.