Scott Bessent ousts 3 more IRS executives, asserting greater control

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ousted three senior IRS executives this week responsible for online tax services and the scrutiny of tax-exempt organizations as the Trump administration asserts new control over the tax agency, according to three people familiar with the situation.

Karen Howard, executive director of online services, confirmed Friday that she was placed on indefinite administrative leave with pay but declined to comment further. Bridget Roberts and Robert Choi, who led divisions for Direct File and Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, respectively, also were removed, according to the three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share personnel information.

The departures come at a time of unprecedented turnover at the tax agency, where in recent days Bessent was named acting commissioner. He’s the seventh person to lead the IRS since the start of the year, replacing former Missouri congressman Billy Long after less than two months. Long has since announced he will become U.S. ambassador to Iceland.

Holly Paz, who oversaw the IRS’s large business unit, and Elizabeth Kastenberg with the Office of Professional Responsibility, were placed on leave earlier this summer. At least one-quarter of the IRS’s workforce has resigned, been laid off or accepted resignation packages. Several executives and former commissioners departed over the administration’s efforts to share confidential tax data with immigration authorities.

The IRS and Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Roberts and Choi could not be reached for comment.

The IRS has long been a target of some conservative groups that claim it harasses business owners or levels undue examinations against Republican causes. The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative advocacy group that has circulated lists of federal employees with purported liberal biases, referenced Roberts and Howard in a June memo that highlighted their alleged voting histories and campaign contributions, as well as some of Howard’s social media posts.

The memo also linked Choi and Paz to the agency’s handling of tea party groups and other conservative nonprofits that were seeking tax-exempt status more than a decade ago; both were employed in the division that helped oversee such applications. Critics said the IRS had subjected the targeted groups to extra scrutiny and long delays, largely because their names suggested they would be political opponents of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party.

But a 2017 report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration determined both liberal and conservative groups were targeted. The Justice Department did not bring charges.

“We’re incredibly excited about this,” Thomas Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, said of the departures. “Our thesis here is that the people in senior leadership, even if they’re civil servants, are incredibly impactful on the policies that shape the lives of Americans, whether it’s tax policy, whether it’s immigration policy, whether it’s education policy,” he said.

Some former officials say the churn at the agency – and the removal of top leaders and experienced employees – hamstrings the IRS’s ability to collect revenue at a time when federal officials say they’re concerned about the size of the spiraling national debt.

“With this steady drumbeat of attacks, you can’t turn it around in 30 days,” said John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner during the Obama and first Trump administrations. “The people that have left [took] years of experience with them, and you can’t just hire people off the street to replace them.”

“I can’t understand what the plan is,” he said.