President Donald Trump has replaced the acting IRS commissioner just days after he appointed him.
The new acting head is Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender, according to a statement on Friday from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Trust must be brought back to the IRS, and I am fully confident that Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender is the right man for the moment,” Bessent said.
Michael Faulkender, President Donald Trump’s pick to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, listens during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill, March 6, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Faulkender replaces Gary Shapley, a longtime IRS agent, whom Trump had picked to run the IRS as acting commissioner on Tuesday.
Shapley is the IRS whistleblower who accused the Justice Department under President Joe Biden of granting his son, Hunter Biden, special treatment during a yearslong probe into his tax affairs.
IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley arrives to testify on the Hunter Biden investigation during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Dec. 5, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
“Gary Shapley’s passion and thoughtfulness for approaching ways by which to create durable and lasting reforms at the IRS is essential to our work, and he remains among my most important senior advisors at the U.S. Treasury as we work together to rethink and reform the IRS,” Bessent added.
“After Gary and Joseph Ziegler complete their ongoing year-long investigation, I intend to appoint them both to senior roles at either the IRS or United States Treasury that will ensure the results of their investigation translate into meaningful policy changes.”
Signage for the Internal Revenue Service is seen outside IRS headquarters in Washington, April 15, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
