Tax attorney Greg Jenner was quoted in Law360 in an article titled “IRS Pick's Clean Slate May Help Reform Embattled Agency.” The article profiles Charles Rettig, who was nominated by President Trump to lead the Internal Revenue Service and would replace John Koskinen, who was appointed in 2013.
Rettig is a highly-regarded tax litigator who has worked at a California law firm for more than 35 years. He is also seen as not facing the same obstacles in the position as Koskinen, who was appointed to manage a political bias scandal at the IRS in which Republicans accused the agency of having inappropriately subjected to additional scrutiny conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Rettig is also a departure from the management professionals who have led the IRS for the last two decades — under which, according to Jenner, more attention was paid to the tax agency’s administrative running than to operations such as audits and appeals that involve interfacing with taxpayers.
“You sort of got the sense that the commissioner really does need a feel for how the tax system works,” Jenner said. “It's sort of like hiring a CEO to run an airline company who's never been in the airline industry. Why would you do that?”
Read “IRS Pick's Clean Slate May Help Reform Embattled Agency,” published February 12, 2018. (Subscription required.)