Acting IRS commissioner resigning following data-sharing deal: Reports
Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner Melanie Krause is resigning after a deal was made to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Several reports confirmed Krause, who was acting head of the agency since February, would be stepping down over the new data-sharing agreement.
It was announced Monday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem struck a deal allowing ICE to submit the names and addresses of immigrants illegally into the U.S. to the IRS to cross-verify tax records.
Multiple people familiar with Krause’s resignation confirmed to The Associated Press she would no longer be leading the organization.
The data-sharing agreement marks a significant shift in the IRS’s longstanding policy, which keeps taxpayer information confidential.
Since the agreement was announced, the IRS has been in upheaval, the AP reported.
As tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sought to gain access to the IRS information, a veteran IRS employee, acting commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, announced his retirement earlier this year.
Krause has been leading since O’Donnell stepped down. Before O’Donnell, Danny Werfel, a Biden-era nominee, left on President Trump’s inauguration day.
One of the reasons Krause was leaving the agency was because of the agreement. Krause had been involved in the last draft of the deal, but it was different than the final agreement, and she later learned about the details through the news, CNN reported.
There were other reasons she wanted to leave the agency, including the direction the IRS was going and many senior employees leaving, the outlet reported.
Career officials have expressed concern about the agreement, concerned that it could spark a larger debate about taxpayer privacy.
Krause’s decision to leave the agency comes just before the tax-filing deadline, the busiest time of year for the IRS.
She’s expected to depart the organization April 28 as part of the deferred resignation offer extended to federal employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.