DOJ 2026 Budget Reflects Reorganization Plan to Eliminate Tax Division and Spread Its Functions to Other Components (CIV and CRIM) (6/17/25)

The DOJ Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Performance Summary, dated 6/13/25, here, reflects a reorganization eliminating the Tax Division and moving its functions to the Civil (Tax Branch) and Criminal Divisions. Much of the document is budget-speak that some policy-wonks may want to dig into, but for readers of this blog, the bottom line elimination of the Tax Division and transfer of its functions is the key point. Excerpts relevant to that key point are:

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• Eliminations.

    • Tax Division (TAX). TAX will be eliminated as a standalone component, with its civil enforcement work transferred to CIV and its criminal enforcement work being transferred to CRM. The FY 2025 operating plan allocated TAX’s remaining resources directly to the budgets for CIV and CRM; this is  also reflected in the FY 2026 request. The reorganization provides more oversight to the tax  enforcement function and more effectively distributes resources.

JAT Note: I infer that the "more oversight" may be the key here, because Trump and his minions have previously expressed unhappiness with the Tax Division, the least political DOJ Component, because it took action that Trump and his minions did not like and want more political control over the tax litigation. Of course, more political control of DOJ and its Components which Trump has ramped up may come back to haunt them later when a new administration comes in.

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General Legal Activities
Criminal Division (CRM)

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The Department of Justice has started a reorganization to improve its effectiveness in executing its mission. Included in this reorganization will be the integration of three new groups into the Criminal Division: the criminal portfolios of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit of the Civil Rights Division, and the criminal portfolios of the Tax Division.

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General Legal Activities
Civil Division (CIV)

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Organization:

CIV’s Assistant Attorney General is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. CIV is comprised of seven litigating branches and an administrative office. The seven litigating branches are: the Commercial Litigation Branch, the Federal Programs Branch, the Office of Immigration Litigation, the Torts Branch, and the Appellate Staff. Additionally, CIV was restructured in FY 2025 to realign the affirmative civil litigation handled by the Federal Programs Branch and all civil affirmative enforcement work handled by the Consumer Protection Branch (CPB) to a new Enforcement and Affirmative  Litigation Branch. The reorganization moved all CPB criminal enforcement work to the Criminal Division, thus eliminating the Consumer Protection Branch, and transferred civil enforcement work formerly in the TAX Division to the CIV’s newly established Tax Branch.

The Tax Division Exhibits are here, starting with an organization chart with the footnote indicating that the organization chart is dated 11/26/12 and that the chart is subject to change following the implementation of the Department’s ARRP (defined earlier as Department’s Reorganization Plan (ARRP)).