- The acting head of the IRS will reportedly step down this week. He will be the second IRS leader to leave in as many months. The move comes amidst significant staff reductions at the tax agency.
Tax season is generally a pretty chaotic time at the Internal Revenue Service, but 2025 could set a new high bar.
The Wall Street Journal reports acting IRS commissioner Douglas O’Donnell will announce his retirement this week. He has been in this job for less than a month, following the resignation of Biden pick Danny Werfel.
Former U.S. Representative Billy Long, who Trump has nominated to run the agency, isn’t expected to be confirmed until closer to the end of tax season. Melanie Krause is expected to take over as acting commissioner.
The top-office musical chairs comes as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has been sniffing around the IRS, seeking access to a guarded system that contains taxpayer information and terminating over 6,000 workers.
The staffing shakeup comes after the Biden administration invested heavily in the IRS, with plans to hire tens of thousands of IRS workers to help with both customer service and enforcement. Trump has been working to reverse that expansion since taking office.
The big question taxpayers have amidst all of these staff changes and reductions are what impact there will be on their refund status. While the IRS has not extended its estimated timeline for refunds (which stands at up to 21 days for e-filed returns and 4 weeks or more for returns sent by mail), any changes to the IRS in the middle of tax season could cause delays.