IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel announced his resignation just days before Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
Werfel, who had three years left in his term, made the decision to step down on President-elect Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day as Trump has nominated former Missouri Congressman Billy Long as the new IRS Commissioner to revitalize the corrupt agency.
“After significant introspection and consultation with others, I’ve determined the best way to support a successful transition is to depart the IRS on January 20, 2025,” Werfel said in a memo obtained by Wall Street Journal.
“While leaving a job you love is never easy, I take comfort in knowing that the civil servant leaders and employees at the IRS are the exact right team to effectively steward this organization forward until a new IRS Commissioner is confirmed.”
He continued, “While I had always intended to complete my full term as Commissioner, the President-elect has announced his plan to nominate a new IRS Commissioner. I have been touched by those who have reached out to me to share how they were hopeful that I could remain in seat and continue the important work underway. But as civil servants, we have a job to do, and that job is to now ensure a new Commissioner is set up for success.”
Trump’s decision to overhaul the IRS is in line with his broader promise to “drain the swamp” and restore accountability within federal agencies.
In 2022, The Democrat Senate passed the sweeping economic package that would allocate billions of taxpayer dollars to facilitate the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service’s workforce.
The IRS would receive $80 billion if H.R. 5376, the $750 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” passes the House and lands on Biden’s desk. The funding would mark a 600 percent increase from 2021 when the bureau received $12.6 billion.
The reconciliation package would also double the current IRS workforce by hiring an additional 87,000 employees to the bureau’s staff of 78,661 employees. At 165,661 employees, the IRS is poised to become larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI and Border Patrol combined total employees of 158,779.
The IRS has been accused of selectively auditing conservative organizations.
Senator J.D. Vance highlighted instances where the agency harassed right-leaning groups. This selective scrutiny harks back to previous abuses, notably during the Obama era, where the IRS targeted Tea Party groups.
A report by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government detailed egregious civil liberties abuses, including unannounced visits to journalists’ homes on days they testified before Congress.
Alarmingly, nearly 6,000 IRS employees, approximately 5% of its workforce, owe about $50 million in unpaid taxes. Despite their role in enforcing tax compliance, the majority have no plans to settle their debts.
