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The crime-fighting arm of the IRS spent less time tracking down tax evaders this year, instead picking up some new responsibilities, such as helping with immigration enforcement and supporting National Guard deployments in two Democratic-led cities.
IRS Criminal Investigations Chief Guy Ficco spoke with The Associated Press about how the agency is juggling its work on new Trump administration priorities with its core mission of tax enforcement. The little-known agency has been doing more with fewer staff, according to its annual report, released on Thursday.
Ficco, who served as the head of the IRS Criminal Investigations unit during both the Biden and Trump presidencies, described his workforce as “resilient” after Department of Government Efficiency cuts to the unit earlier this year.
“I think, by anyone’s account, 2025 has been challenging in the sense that there’s always a challenge when administrations change,” Ficco said in the interview.
When combined with layoffs and retirements this year, Ficco said, “we’re down a significant amount of our personnel now.”
There was a 10% reduction in personnel for the unit in fiscal year 2025, going from 3,474 field agents and professional staff in 2024, down to 3,143 in 2025.
The agency has also had to manage a larger workload, sending about 25 agents to support the National Guard after Trump deployed the soldiers to help address crime in Washington, D.C.
In September, the agents also began helping with National Guard operations in Memphis. In February, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asked to borrow IRS Criminal Investigation workers to help with her agency’s immigration operations.
Since May, the IRS unit has deployed 250 agents to track down undocumented people and issue deportation orders, Ficco said. IRS-CI said its agents have helped ICE with arrests, detentions, and deportations.
Meanwhile, the agency boosted the number of investigations into corporate and financial institution fraud, money laundering, and a host of other crimes. However, one area that has seen a drop-off is investigations for “abusive tax schemes” or tax evasion.
IRS-CI issued 834 prosecution recommendations for tax crimes in fiscal year 2025. But tax evasion cases dropped to 34 in 2025, down from 92 in 2024, and there were 17 prosecutions recommended this year compared to 55 in 2024.
Some cases IRS-CI had previously recommended for prosecution are waiting for action from the DOJ, and “ultimately may get prosecuted in the near future,” Ficco said.
DoorDash and Uber said they have jointly sued New York City to block requirements that the delivery tipping option be available during checkout and set to at least 10%, which the companies worry could worsen sticker shock for inflation-weary consumers.
The laws set to become effective on Jan. 26 were enacted in response to measures the companies took after the city’s minimum-wage rule for delivery workers was instated in 2023.
At the time, apps like DoorDash and Uber raised customers’ service fees to subsidize the new pay rate and moved the in-app tipping function to after checkout so that the upfront delivery costs would seem lower.
In the year after the rule became law and the companies enacted the new measures, customers tipped 64% less and paid about 45% more in fees per delivery order, per data submitted by delivery services to the city.
In their legal complaint, the companies argue the laws violate their free speech rights under the First Amendment.
“By commandeering space on plaintiffs’ online platforms and dictating the content, timing, and manner of plaintiffs’ communications with their customers regarding the discretionary act of tipping, the law violates core constitutional protections,” they said.
Starting in early 2026, Rivian plans to launch a subscription service called Autonomy+, which will offer autonomous driving capabilities powered by its new in-house processors and computer systems.
The Autonomy+ service will be sold as a one-time $2,500 option or a monthly subscription starting at $49.99. For comparison, Tesla’s premium Full Self-Driving (FSD) system costs $8,000 upfront or $99/month.
In addition, Rivian says that an upcoming software update will include hands-free driving on over 3.5 million miles of marked roads across North America. Importantly, unlike Tesla, Rivian plans to use lidar and radar sensors to support Level 4 automation.
The game’s bold artistic vision, emotional storytelling, and innovative direction earned it seven major awards, including the industry’s highest honor:
🏆 Game of the Year
🎬 Best Game Direction
📖 Best Narrative
🎨 Best Art Direction
🎼 Best Score & Music
🎮 Best Independent Game
🎤 Best Performance — Jennifer English as Maelle
A rare achievement for a new IP — and especially for an indie title — Clair Obscur proves that powerful ideas, strong world-building, and exceptional execution can outshine even the biggest AAA contenders.
This is the kind of project that inspires the entire gaming and storytelling community.
Congratulations to the team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.