IRS Names Acting Commissioner, Announces 4,000 Hires Made This Year
Last week, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Deputy Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell as Acting IRS Commissioner following the conclusion of Commissioner Charles Rettig’s term on November 12.
O’Donnell is a career IRS employee, with 36 years of service. O’Donnell currently is the IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, and served as the Commissioner of the IRS Large Business and International Division for nearly six years prior.
“I want to thank Commissioner Rettig for his tireless service to the American people across two administrations, and his leadership of the IRS during the difficult and unique challenges posed by COVID-19. I am grateful to him for his partnership and efforts to ensure taxpayers had the resources they needed to make it through the pandemic,” said Secretary Yellen. “Deputy Commissioner O’Donnell has dedicated his career to serving American taxpayers through every level of the agency. His commitment to improving the experience of the American taxpayer will guide his and the agency’s work as they continue their efforts to propel the IRS forward during a critical period of modernization. Now more than ever, the IRS has the momentum to transform with service, technology and workforce improvements that will make it a world-class agency to meet the needs of the American people.”
National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Tony Reardon said the union was “pleased to see an experienced career professional chosen to manage the agency until a new commissioner is appointed and confirmed.”
The Professional Managers Association (PMA) in recent months has urged the Biden Administration to nominate a commissioner and not allow a leadership lapse to occur. The White House has yet to nominate an individual as IRS Commissioner. In September, the president nominated Beth Kaufman for the role of IRS Chief Counsel.
The acting commissioner appointment comes at a critical time for the agency, which Congress recently infused with $80 billion over the next decade through the Inflation Reduction Act. Republican members of Congress have pledged on the campaign trail this fall to repeal the funding increase and conduct robust oversight of the agency next year.
The IRS announced last week that it has hired over 4,000 new employees this year in its customer service functions, as it makes headway to achieving its goal of 5,000 new hires in 2022. The agency received direct hire authority from Congress and used it to rapidly hire and onboard employees. In the past it took the IRS approximately 8 months to hire and onboard customer service representatives.
The IRS has focused its hiring efforts in 2022 on customer service representatives, and will continue hiring for those roles thru 2023. Commissioner Rettig notes that going forward, the agency will also be hiring for positions in IT, compliance, legal, and a variety of other functions.
"The IRS is fully committed to providing the best service possible, and we are moving quickly to use new funding to help taxpayers during the busy tax season," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "Our phone lines have been simply overwhelmed during the pandemic, and we have been unable to provide the help that IRS employees want to give and that the nation's taxpayers deserve. But help is on the way for taxpayers. As the newly hired employees are trained and move online in 2023, we will have more assistors on the phone than any time in recent history."
