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IRS Commissioner Nominee Daniel Werfel Testifies Before Senate Finance Committee

Client Alert | 1 min read | 02.24.23

On February 15th, Daniel Werfel, the nominee for IRS Commissioner, testified before the Senate Finance Committee during his nomination hearing. As expected, Werfel faced tough questioning about how he would oversee the use of $80 billion in new funding coming to the IRS over the next decade. The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed late last year, appropriated the additional funding for the IRS to increase compliance and provide better customer service to taxpayers. 

Republicans have criticized the additional funding, citing fears that the investment in the IRS will increase audits of individual and small business taxpayers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addressed this concern, stating that the new funding will not be used to increase the audit rate for households making under $400,000 a year. Werfel committed during his nomination hearing to following Secretary Yellen’s directive.

Werfel testified that, if confirmed, “the audit and compliance priorities will be focused on enhancing the IRS’ capabilities to ensure that America’s highest earners comply with applicable tax laws.” As a result, we expect to see more coordinated and potentially more aggressive audits of high-earning individuals and corporations.

Werfel also testified that, if confirmed, he would focus on modernizing the IRS, improving taxpayer service, overhauling the agency’s technology systems, and adding additional IRS employees in customer service roles and with expertise in complex tax matters. The tax community has lamented the IRS’s customer service capabilities and outdated systems for years and these proposed modernization efforts are a welcome, much needed change.

We will continue to follow the IRS’s enforcement efforts as they develop and provide updates.

Insights

Client Alert | 3 min read | 10.15.25

Developers Adapt Timelines and Strategies for Wind and Solar Projects Following Recent IRS Guidance and Expected IRS Enforcement Activity

On August 15, 2025, the Treasury Department and IRS released updated guidance concerning Beginning of Construction requirements to qualify for clean energy tax credits. This new guidance is critical for developers to consider as they rush to qualify for the tax credits before they expire entirely. The much-anticipated guidance followed the July 7, 2025 Executive Order 14315, Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources (“July 7, 2025 Executive Order”), which signaled that the Trump Administration was planning to strictly enforce the termination of production and investment tax credits for solar and wind facilities that are set to expire under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB Act), covered in more detail here. The new guidance comes at a time when many in the industry are struggling to keep up with the myriad ways that the new administration is working to roll back wind and solar tax credits, leaving developers to piece through the recent guidance to determine how best to structure and invest in clean energy projects given the volatile position of the current administration vis-a-vis wind and solar energy....