IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, in News Release 2023-237, announced his plans to restructure the leadership at the agency. The new leadership structure will replace two deputy commissioners with a single deputy and will have four new leadership positions that will oversee taxpayer service, tax compliance, information technology and operations. These changes will take place in early 2024. (IR 2023-237, 12/13/2023)
According to the News Release, the roots of this change date to the Taxpayer First Act Report to Congress in January 2021 and are contained in the new IRS Strategic Operating Plan released in April 2023. Werfel noted this change is a logical step for the agency given recent history and the rapid pace of Inflation Reduction Act work.
The current IRS leadership structure dates to 2000, when the agency recentered operations around taxpayer segments following enactment of the IRS Restructuring and Reorganization Act of 1998. Minor organizational changes were put in place in the years that followed, including adding a second IRS deputy commissioner in 2003 to oversee operations support.
Werfel said the new structure, with four chiefs reporting to the agency’s top leadership, will strengthen the senior team’s oversight capability and provide new flexibility with virtually no impact on IRS employees.
“This new governance model better supports the agency’s mission as well as giving heightened importance to these four key areas of taxpayer service, tax compliance, IT and operations,” Werfel said. “These are critical areas we need to focus on, and this structure will reflect those priorities.”
The new IRS deputy commissioner role will be filled by Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Doug O’Donnell. O’Donnell, who served as acting IRS Commissioner from November 2022 through March 2023, has spent more than 37 years at the IRS in a variety of roles.
Reporting to O’Donnell will be the four new IRS chief positions and IRS Online Services. O’Donnell and the four chief positions will work closely with Werfel:
Chief, Taxpayer Service. Ken Corbin, the current IRS Wage and Investment (W&I) commissioner, will lead this group. Taxpayer Service will include many of the major taxpayer functions currently handled by Corbin’s W&I organization, including handling the filing season work and taxpayer-facing operations including toll-free operations, tax return processing centers, Taxpayer Assistance Centers and tax forms, taxpayer correspondence, and publication development.
Chief Taxpayer Compliance Officer. Heather Maloy, currently the IRS chief of staff, will serve in this new role overseeing IRS compliance work. In this position, Maloy will oversee IRS compliance operations including in LBI, the Small Business/Self Employed division, the Tax Exempt and Government Entities division, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Return Preparer Office, and the Whistleblower Office.
With Maloy moving into his new position, Jonathan Warsh, who currently serves as Senior Counselor to the IRS Commissioner, will serve as Acting IRS Chief of Staff.
Chief Information Officer. Rajiv Uppal will serve in this role when he joins the IRS in 2024. This new chief position will include the current IRS information technology division, which is currently led by IRS’ Chief Technology Officer and Acting Chief Information Officer, Kaschit Pandya.
Chief Operating Officer. Melanie Krause will serve in this new position. Krause joined the IRS in October 2021 in her current role as the Chief Data & Analytics Officer where she also leads Research, Applied Analytics and Statistics (RAAS). Krause serves as co-lead of the Data and Analytics Strategic Integration Board, where she works to advance areas of strategic importance to the agency, including using AI and other advanced analytics.
Offices under the Chief Operating Officer include the Human Capital Office, the Chief Financial Office, Procurement, Facilities Management and Security Services, Privacy Governmental Liaison and Disclosure, RAAS, the Risk Office, and others.
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