Acting IRS commissioner to step down amid DOGE blitz on agency

The acting commissioner of the IRS will announce he is stepping down as early as Tuesday, according to four people familiar with the matter who said the departure is driven in part over his distress about the chaos inflicted on the government by billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.

Doug O’Donnell, a civil servant who spent several decades at the agency, will depart the administration by the end of the week, said the people, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. He is expected to be replaced on a temporary basis by Melanie Krause, who has also served in senior positions at the tax agency, the people said. President Trump has nominated Billy Long, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, to run the agency on a more permanent basis, if he is confirmed by the Senate.

O’Donnell’s expected departure comes at a pivotal time for the IRS, which faces a crush from tax filing season and fresh scrutiny from Musk’s team.

The people familiar with the matter said O’Donnell was concerned by many of the moves Musk made on the government, including firing probationary employees. As part of Musk-driven cuts, about 7,000 IRS employees are expected to lose their jobs, a person familiar with the matter has said. O’Donnell was also widely expected to retire sometime this year, people familiar with the matter said.

The White House also has been working on a memorandum of understanding to give DOGE officials broad access to IRS systems, property and databases. The draft would require DOGE to maintain the confidentiality of tax return information, but was still viewed by IRS officials as highly unusual.

O’Donnell’s anticipated resignation was first reported by the New York Times. Spokespeople for the Treasury Department and IRS did not immediately return requests for comment. Efforts to locate contact information for O’Donnell directly were not immediately successful Monday night.

O’Donnell’s exit follows the departure of David A. Lebryk, who had been the highest-ranking civil servant in the Treasury Department, over DOGE’s request for access to the department’s sensitive payment systems.