IRS gets its fourth, then fifth, head this year

The revolving door of acting IRS leaders continues to spin. Gary Shapley, who replaced former acting commissioner Melanie Krause, was replaced after just three days on the job. Michael Faulkender, deputy secretary of the Treasury, will take his seat, becoming the fifth person to lead the IRS since January (and the third in the space of a week).

Shapley was appointed to lead the IRS on Tuesday via a memo from President Donald Trump. His installation was heavily influenced by Elon Musk, sources told the New York Times. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent objected to Shapley’s installation, which he said occurred without his permission. He persuaded Trump to reverse the decision and appoint Faulkender instead.

The rapid-fire changes reflect tensions between Bessent and Musk. A source told Politico that Bessent is opposed to Musk’s plans to drastically reduce the size of the IRS workforce, and that he was mainly interested in cutting IT contracts. Bessent has fired DOGE staffer Gavin Kliger, who was planning on making deep cuts to IRS staff.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the Wall Street Journal. “The continual changes at the top of the IRS, along with the loss of thousands of experienced employees, means that the agency will be challenged to provide efficient service to taxpayers and to collect all the taxes owed.”

Shapley, a former IRS criminal investigator, came to prominence by claiming that the Justice Department was stalling on an investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes. He and another critic of the Hunter Biden investigation, Joseph Ziegler, will get “senior government roles,” Bessent said in a statement.

Faulkender will (presumably) head the IRS until a commissioner is confirmed by the Senate. Trump’s pick for the role is former Republican Representative Billy Long, a figure with controversial ties to a company that encouraged businesses to apply for the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) against the advice of their accountants. Long also paid back a loan with campaign contributions he received after Trump announced him as his pick, some of which came from companies the IRS will oversee.