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IRS Overhauls Leadership Structure

By John Manganaro

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The Internal Revenue Service announced plans this week to adopt a new leadership structure at the agency early next year, marking the first such change at the IRS in more than two decades.

In revealing the new management approach, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that important transformation work is ongoing at the agency, and that 2024 is the “right time” to make some important “organizational adjustments.”

Specifically, the new organizational structure will feature a single deputy IRS commissioner, instead of two, and four new IRS chief positions are being created to oversee taxpayer service, tax compliance, information technology and operations.

The new IRS deputy commissioner role will be filled by Doug O’Donnell, currently the deputy commissioner for services and enforcement. 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.

Ken Corbin, the current IRS wage and investment commissioner, will lead the taxpayer services group; Heather Maloy, currently the IRS chief of staff, will take on leadership of the tax compliance group; Rajiv Uppal, a current director within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will lead the information technology unit; and Melanie Krause, currently a chief data and analytics officer, will oversee the operations group.

According to Werfel, the collective changes will “streamline operational efficiencies and align with major transformation work underway at the agency through the Inflation Reduction Act funding.” That piece of legislation, adopted in mid-2022, directed an additional $80 billion to the IRS.

“Many foundational changes in tax administration have occurred since the last major IRS organizational change, and this new alignment will help us in our ongoing transformation work to modernize the nation’s tax system,” Werfel said.

The changes are anticipated to be put in place in early 2024, and Werfel emphasized that the leadership changes would not immediately affect the vast majority of IRS employees or their day-to-day work — just the reporting structure for these top positions.

Werfel added that the IRS will be working with Congress, the National Treasury Employees Union (which represents many IRS employees) and other stakeholders as plans progress on the changes.

Pictured: Danny Werfel

John Manganaro

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