Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is organizing a high-stakes “hackathon” at the IRS headquarters next week. The initiative aims to rapidly develop a centralized “mega API” that would unify access to IRS taxpayer data, according to multiple sources who spoke to WIRED.
The effort is being led by Sam Corcos and Gavin Kliger, two DOGE operatives embedded within the IRS. Corcos, a health-tech entrepreneur with links to SpaceX, currently advises Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Kliger, formerly of AI company Databricks, serves as a special adviser to the Office of Personnel Management.
DOGE has reportedly floated Palantir Technologies, co-founded by Musk associate Peter Thiel, as a potential third-party partner to help build and manage the API. Sources indicate that discussions around cloud implementation have involved other private vendors as well.
Radical Shift in IRS Modernization Plans
According to IRS sources, Corcos has called for an immediate pause on all ongoing engineering projects within the agency and scrapped modernization plans amounting to $1.5 billion in cuts. On Fox News in March, he stated these projects were contributing to a “death spiral of complexity.”
The new vision, insiders say, centers around building “one API to rule them all”—a cloud-based portal that consolidates and streamlines access to IRS systems. Currently, IRS data is distributed across dozens of compartmentalized systems requiring strict, permission-based access. The proposed API would make this data broadly accessible in one place—raising serious security and privacy concerns.
30-Day Push and Staff Shakeups
DOGE has requested a list of the IRS’s top engineers to join the hackathon, where plans call for dismantling legacy infrastructure and rebuilding from scratch in just 30 days. Initially estimated as a year-long project, the timeline was dramatically reduced under DOGE’s directive.
Internal resistance is growing. “That’s not technically feasible and could cripple the IRS,” one source said. Others warned it may disrupt the 2026 tax filing season.
DOGE’s influence is already reshaping IRS personnel. Around 50 technologists were placed on administrative leave last week, followed by further dismissals—including top cybersecurity officials. Sources say only a few senior tech leaders remain.
Privacy Concerns and Political Context
The data overhaul aligns with a recent executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating government data silos. Critics argue the policy, while framed as anti-fraud, may consolidate sensitive personal information and expose it to misuse.
Internal documents also show DOGE operatives requested taxpayer and vendor data, though Kliger was initially granted only read-only access to anonymized tax records.
Privacy advocates are alarmed. “This is basically an open door to the most sensitive data Americans have,” one IRS employee told WIRED. Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future, warned that centralizing IRS data poses “profound risks to civil liberties.”
Palantir’s Role and Future Implications
Palantir recently secured the highest FedRAMP security certification, enabling it to work on federal cloud systems like those proposed for the IRS overhaul. CEO Alex Karp praised government disruption during a February earnings call: “This is a revolution. Some people are going to get their heads cut off.”
Corcos has hinted at a six-month tenure at the IRS and stated he wants to eliminate the IRS’s Direct File program, a free public tax-filing service.
DOGE’s broader strategy echoes its moves at other agencies, such as efforts to migrate the Social Security Administration off COBOL systems and into modern programming languages. With engineering teams being slashed and deadlines shrinking, watchdogs worry the rush to rebuild federal tech may be more chaotic than revolutionary.
