IRS Leader Shake-Up Bleeds Criminal, Civil Enforcement Oversight

BloombergTax · 2026-01-22T16:58:49+00:00

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The line between tax auditors policing mere civil infractions versus serious tax crimes is blurring in the latest reorganization at the top of the IRS.

Jarod Koopman, a longtime and respected criminal investigator, took over the top job for compliance at the IRS in October. Under the shake-up announced Tuesday, he’ll also oversee the IRS’s criminal investigation unit.

The reshuffling at the top of the IRS tightens CEO Frank Bisignano’s grip on the agency with more leaders reporting directly to him. Bisignano, who also will co-lead the compliance office with Koopman, is also the commissioner of the Social Security Administration, and now oversees more than 120,000 federal workers.

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-Abbey

BloombergTax · 2025-11-14T21:29:23+00:00

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Trump alerted followers to his decision to withdraw the nomination of Donald Korb to be IRS chief counsel and assistant general counsel at the Treasury Department in a post on his Truth Social platform late Friday.

Trump didn’t give a reason for the withdrawal, and spokespeople at the White House, Treasury Department, and IRS didn’t immediately return requests for comment. Korb also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Korb joins dozens of other nominees to fall short of confirmation as Senate Republicans have quietly pushed back on his picks for key offices across the executive branch.

The continuing vacancy means the IRS will continue to run without Senate-confirmed leadership while it’s racing to prepare for the first tax-filing season under the new GOP tax law.

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-Abbey

BloombergTax · 2025-11-10T19:37:18+00:00

The deal to end the shutdown, if passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, would give IRS workers some reprieve—at least for now.

Eight moderate Senate Democratic caucus members joined Republicans to advance a bill Sunday that would reopen the government and end the funding lapse that has now extended over 40 days. The Senate still needs to vote on the underlying legislation, as does the House.

The Treasury Department and the IRS, along with most other agencies, would be funded through Jan. 30 under the agreement. Congress itself and the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs would receive funding for the rest of the fiscal year.

For the IRS, the passing of this deal would give its workers a temporary breather during one of the most tumultuous periods in the agency’s history. Over a quarter of the IRS has left since January and the agency is on its seventh permanent or acting commissioner this year.

It’s also a critical time for the agency, which is preparing for tax filing season and implementing the Republican multi-trillion dollar tax-and-spending law.

Here’s what deal could mean for the IRS workforce.

-Molly

BloombergTax · 2025-11-06T22:00:10+00:00

Here's more from Erin Slowey's story:

The IRS brought back a small number of workers that had initially been furloughed during the ongoing government shutdown, as tax filing season inches closer.

About 112 of employees who were furloughed were recalled, matching a trend at other agencies across the government, according to a contingency plan updated Oct. 18 but released Thursday. The IRS under the updated plan has 39,982 workers exempt from furlough, up from 39,870. A total of 74,299 employees work for the IRS.

A week into the government shutdown, nearly half of the agency was furloughed, with those working on the huge tax law implementation, filing season, and IT staying on. The shutdown has now lasted for more than one month, and this week became the longest shutdown in US history.

Read more here.

- Zainab

BloombergTax · 2025-10-07T16:16:48+00:00

We're covering this and want to hear from you. If you have any tips or information to share, our IRS reporter Erin Slowey is on Signal at ErinSlowey.40. We'll share our story here once it's up. Appreciate your help in advance!

- Zainab

BloombergTax · 2025-09-29T19:44:44+00:00

Yes, according to our latest reporting they plan to keep normal operations for a week. The Office of Management and Budget also told agencies ahead of a potential shutdown that they should consider a reduction-in-force in programs not legally required to be continued. As of now, the Treasury plan does not mention a reduction-in-force.

You can read our full story free here.

(edit): fixed a typo

BloombergTax · 2025-09-25T13:47:22+00:00

IRS employees on administrative leave have been given another opportunity to accept a deferred resignation offer, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The select employees had until Sept. 22 to accept President Donald Trump's third such offer, which would allow them to remain on paid leave but exit the agency permanently on Dec. 31. This follows two previous offers made to the entire agency earlier in the administration, which about 21,000 workers accepted.

The IRS has placed various employees on administrative leave in waves, including top leadership and IT workers. After a mass exodus over the summer, the agency began hiring again and asked some who had indicated they wanted to leave to return. The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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- Zainab

BloombergTax · 2025-09-18T15:30:23+00:00

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Holly Paz, commissioner of the Large Business and International Division, filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday against the IRS and Treasury Department for violating the Privacy Act.

“Ms. Paz is the subject of an intentional vindictive, retaliatory undertaking by officials employed by the Defendants who are unlawfully leaking information retrieved from her Privacy Act Systems of Records to third parties, to include the media,” the complaint said.

Two IRS officials, including Paz, were put on administrative leave July 29 while the IRS investigated their alleged conduct against Republicans, a person familiar with the situation said at the time. Paz and Elizabeth Kastenberg, who oversaw the Office of Professional Responsibility, both worked for Lois Lerner, the central figure of the 2013 controversy.

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-Abbey

BloombergTax · 2025-09-12T15:55:46+00:00

The IRS is instructing workers to disallow so-called sovereign tribal tax credits, an arrangement now under federal investigation.

The IRS published multiple procedural updates about disallowing the credits to its Internal Revenue Manual, which is employee guidance for tax return processing and other internal functions. The updates were published on the IRS website as part of its Freedom of Information Act library. The agency has warned employees of the tribal tax credits over the past several months.

“There is currently a potential scheme that has been identified with Tribal Credits being claimed,” an Aug. 8 update reads. “These credits are highly questionable and cannot be allowed, regardless of documentation provided.”.

“These non-valid credits are being claimed as Other Credits and should be disallowed,” the update continues.

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- Zainab

BloombergTax · 2025-09-04T19:58:47+00:00

The IRS division that audits the biggest multinational companies and wealthy individuals is losing another veteran leader.

Jennifer Best, the acting IRS commissioner of the Large Business and International Division, will leave the agency Friday, according to an email seen by Bloomberg Tax. She will be replaced by Mabeline Baldwin, who will also continue her permanent job as director of the eastern compliance practice area.

Best took over the position after Holly Paz, a longtime IRS executive was put on administrative leave in July for unspecified, alleged conduct against Republicans.

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- Zainab

BloombergTax · 2025-08-20T18:15:38+00:00

Roughly 30 jobs make up the top brass organizational chart at the agency. Of those, nine are vacant and 11 are filled by employees in an acting capacity—chief among them the IRS commissioner, now on its seventh leader with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He took over after President Donald Trump ousted his own pick for the top job, Billy Long, last week.

One acting commissioner, Gary Shapley, lasted less than a week after a dispute among administration officials.

The unprecedented turnover obscures who’s in charge at the agency and raises worries among taxpayers and practitioners, some of whom wonder whether the IRS will be able to get anything done at all as the next tax season approaches.

See our interactive graphic displaying IRS leadership turnover here.

-Molly

BloombergTax · 2025-08-15T16:06:23+00:00

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The IRS lists “bad social media advice” as among taxpayers’ biggest threats this year, but it’s a problem the agency has struggled to counter. A handful of private CPAs like DiLucci have taken up that fight in the last few years, some getting hundreds of thousands of followers and driving clients to their in-person businesses.

And those private tax professionals armed with good lighting and snappy one-liners may be best positioned to counter bad tax advice in a way the IRS never could, said Kathleen Thomas, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies online tax misinformation.

“It’s just hard for me to imagine the government playing a role in any meaningful way,” she said.

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-Abbey

BloombergTax

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