Biden nominates Daniel Werfel as IRS commissioner

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, on Thursday, nominated a new commissioner to steer the Internal Revenue Service forward as it gets a massive funding boost. The tax collection agency’s current commissioner ends his term, this week.

Danny Werfel, who leads Boston Consulting Group’s global public sector practice, was nominated to replace Chuck Rettig, who had been nominated to lead the IRS by former President Donald Trump.

If confirmed by the Senate, Werfel will be tasked with planning how to spend a funding boost for the agency of nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years that was approved by Congress, in August. He will also have to navigate controversy surrounding the new funding, brought by Republicans who have distorted how the new law would reform the IRS and affect taxes for the middle class.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and other Republican lawmakers have claimed without evidence that Democrats would build an army of 87,000 IRS agents to conduct hundreds of thousands of new audits for people making less than $75,000, per year. Those claims have been proven to be false.

Werfel is familiar with IRS controversies. In 2013, when the agency was found to scrutinize political groups that applied for tax-exempt status, Werfel was appointed acting IRS commissioner. While a Treasury Department Inspector General report found that both conservative and liberal groups had been chosen for scrutiny, the agency’s reputation suffered damage in the episode.