Biden selects new leader for IRS

President Biden nominated a new commissioner to steer the Internal Revenue Service forward as it gets a huge 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-Bakersfield, and other GOP lawmakers have claimed without evidence that Democrats would build an army of 87,000 IRS agents to conduct hundreds of thousands of audits for people making less than $75,000 per year. Those claims have been proved to be false.

Werfel has worked in government under both Republican and Democratic administrations — with Barack Obama and George W. Bush — as acting IRS commissioner and Office of Management and Budget controller.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directed the IRS to develop a plan within six months of the August signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, outlining how the agency will overhaul its technology, customer service and hiring processes.