Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman announced Wednesday that he will leave his post next month, ending a four-and-a-half year term during which he modernized some of the agency’s infrastructure while cracking down on tax dodging by corporations and offshore tax evasion by individuals, The New York Times reported yesterday. A former private-equity investor and financial regulator, Shulman took office with a mandate to improve an agency that had been criticized as inefficient and unfair. He jump-started the process of updating many of the IRS’s outdated computer systems—some of which rely on the same types of data tapes that were in use half a century ago—and pushed through more rigorous training and standards for paid tax preparers. But his signature achievement was cracking down on tax avoidance. Shulman rattled many accountants and major corporations by instituting new regulations requiring that companies reveal more details to the IRS about the aggressive strategies they use to lower their federal income tax bills. He was heralded as a deft administrator when he was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008. Those skills helped him run the mammoth IRS bureaucracy, which has 100,000 employees and a $12 billion annual budget, and collects $2.4 trillion in taxes each year. Shulman, who indicated this year that he would be leaving his post soon, will step down on Nov. 9. Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller will step in until a new commissioner is sworn in.
