Top Treasury Tax Official’s Departure Deepens Leadership Crisis At IRS
Ken Kies, the Treasury Department’s top tax policy official who has also been serving as acting chief counsel of the IRS, is expected to leave the federal government, according to multiple published reports, now confirmed by Forbes.
His departure would open another significant hole in IRS leadership. Neither of the two senior IRS leadership positions that require presidential appointment and Senate confirmation—the commissioner and the chief counsel—is currently held by a confirmed official.
Kies was confirmed by the Senate in June 2025 as Treasury’s assistant secretary for tax policy. In that role, he has overseen the development of federal tax policy and the implementation of tax legislation, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
Kies brought decades of Washington tax experience to the administration. Before joining Treasury, he was managing director of the Federal Policy Group, a Washington lobbying firm whose clients included major corporations and trade associations. Earlier, he spent about a decade at Congress’s nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, including three years as chief of staff.
Kies was formally designated acting chief counsel in November. His dual assignment gave him an unusually wide role in the tax system. At Treasury, he helped oversee tax regulations and other administrative guidance. As acting chief counsel, he led the lawyers advising the IRS on how tax laws should be interpreted and enforced.
It is not clear exactly when Kies will leave. Several longtime IRS insiders expressed surprise at the news.
The IRS chief counsel is the agency’s top legal officer and advises the IRS commissioner on the interpretation, administration, and enforcement of federal tax laws.
The position dates back to 1866. Under the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, the chief counsel reports to both the IRS commissioner and the Treasury general counsel.
Attorneys in the Chief Counsel’s Office serve as lawyers for the IRS. They provide guidance on how federal tax laws should be interpreted, advise IRS employees, help develop regulations and other published guidance, and represent the government in Tax Court and other tax litigation.
That makes the position especially important when Congress has enacted major changes to the tax code, like OBBBA. Decisions about how statutory language should be interpreted and implemented can affect billions of dollars in taxes and determine how new provisions apply to individual taxpayers and businesses.
Before workforce reductions attributable to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Chief Counsel’s office had approximately 2,600 employees. The office lost nearly 13% of its staff through resignations and firings during the first half of 2025.
Last month, President Trump nominated James Gadwood to serve as IRS chief counsel and as an assistant general counsel at the Treasury.
Gadwood is a tax lawyer at Miller & Chevalier, where he serves as vice chair of the firm’s tax department. His practice has included representing corporations and high-net-worth individuals in disputes with the IRS. He has also represented the Trump Organization, according to his financial disclosure.
Like the IRS commissioner, the chief counsel must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Gadwood cannot formally take over the office unless and until the Senate confirms him.
His nomination allowed Kies to resume serving as acting chief counsel after Kies’s authority under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act had reached its initial time limit. But if Kies leaves before Gadwood is confirmed, Treasury will have to determine who can legally serve as acting chief counsel in the interim.
The Chief Counsel’s Office has cycled through a series of permanent and acting leaders since the beginning of 2025.
Marjorie Rollinson, the last Senate-confirmed chief counsel, announced her retirement after the 2024 presidential election. Although it is customary for an IRS chief counsel to step down when a new administration takes office, the speed of her departure caught some observers by surprise.
William Paul, a longtime career official who had previously served as acting chief counsel, replaced Rollinson in January 2025. Paul was removed from the position in March. He was reportedly demoted after refusing to cooperate with DOGE representatives who sought access to taxpayer information for possible sharing with other federal agencies.
Andrew De Mello, an attorney in the Chief Counsel’s Office who was viewed as an ally of DOGE, was then named acting chief counsel. He remained in the role until Kies replaced him.
Trump initially nominated Donald Korb for the permanent position. Korb had previously served as IRS chief counsel from 2004 through 2008 under President George W. Bush and was widely known in the tax community. His nomination advanced through the Senate Finance Committee, but Trump withdrew it in November 2025, shortly before a scheduled Senate confirmation vote.
No official explanation was offered. Conservative activist Laura Loomer had criticized Korb’s past political donations and associations and later claimed credit for the withdrawal.
Kies’s tenure as acting chief counsel coincided with sensitive legal disputes involving the IRS. Notably, Trump sued the agency in January, seeking $10 billion in damages. The litigation produced a settlement that included protections purporting to bar the IRS from auditing Trump and certain related individuals and entities, as well as a proposed $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” for others who claimed they had been targeted by the government. The administration later abandoned the fund amid bipartisan criticism. A federal judge this week nullified the settlement and sharply criticized the lawsuit as an improper effort to use the courts to legitimize self-dealing.
Kies had previously represented Trump in tax matters and recused himself from government decisions involving the president’s case. Still, the settlement raised difficult questions inside the IRS, including whether employees could face legal consequences for carrying it out.
Treasury General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned on the same day that the Justice Department announced the settlement. His reasons for leaving have not been made public.
The chief counsel vacancy isn’t the only leadership gap at the top of the IRS.
The agency has not had a confirmed commissioner since Trump removed Billy Long in August 2025, less than two months after Long was sworn in.
Long’s predecessor, Danny Werfel, had been appointed to a five-year term that ordinarily would have continued through 2027. Werfel resigned effective January 20, 2025, after Trump announced that he intended to replace him. A succession of acting officials followed, including Doug O’Donnell, Melanie Krause, Gary Shapley, Michael Faulkender, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Long became the sixth person to lead the IRS in 2025 and was succeeded by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Bessent’s statutory authority to serve as acting commissioner expired in March 2026, a fact that Treasury acknowledged in a statement, writing, “Secretary Scott Bessent’s service as Acting Commissioner of the IRS under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act has expired, and he has not served in that capacity since that time.” However, Treasury has maintained that, as secretary, he continues to have authority and responsibility for functions assigned to vacant Treasury offices that are not being performed by an acting official.
Day-to-day operations at the IRS are now being handled by Frank Bisignano, who was given the newly created title of IRS chief executive officer while continuing to serve as the confirmed commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
Treasury says that allows Bisignano to manage IRS operations while reporting to Bessent. Democratic senators, including Wyden, Schumer, and Warren, described the position as “a fake job that Congress has never authorized” and argued that it is being used to avoid the confirmation process.
Bisignano became the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration in May 2025 after a Senate confirmation vote of 53–47 along party lines. Before joining the government, he spent decades in the private sector, including leadership roles at financial technology companies First Data and Fiserv.
No nominee for IRS commissioner has been announced.
Congress made the IRS commissioner and chief counsel Senate-confirmed positions.
The commissioner is charged with administering the nation’s tax laws, overseeing enforcement and taxpayer service, managing the agency’s workforce and budget, and setting its strategic direction. The commissioner’s five-year term was designed to overlap presidential administrations and provide a degree of continuity.
The chief counsel is responsible for giving the agency independent, technically sound legal advice and overseeing the lawyers who help translate the tax code into rules that taxpayers and IRS employees can apply.
The IRS has gone 341 days—just over 11 months—without either of its two Senate-confirmed leadership positions filled by a confirmed official.
Gadwood’s nomination gives the Senate an opportunity to fill one vacancy. Kies’s expected departure, however, could leave the agency searching for another temporary legal chief before that process is complete. The administration has not announced a nominee for commissioner.