Melanie Krause, who currently serves as chief operating officer at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has been named the tax agency’s commissioner – the title that heads the agency – on an acting basis.
Krause replaces Doug O’Donnell, who was named acting commissioner in January. He is retiring after 38 years of service working with the IRS. He also was acting commissioner from November 2022 to March 2023.
“On behalf of the Treasury Department, I want to thank Doug O’Donnell for his decades of public service and dedication to the nation’s taxpayers,” Scott Bessent, secretary of the Treasury, said in a statement. “He has been a remarkable public servant, and I wish him the best in retirement.”
“At the same time, Melanie Krause and the agency’s leadership team are well positioned to serve during this critical period for the nation in advance of the April tax deadline,” Bessent said.
Krause had served as the IRS chief operating officer since April 2024 after a short stint as deputy commissioner of operations in January 2024. Her responsibilities included overseeing operations across finance, risk, security, human resources, procurement, privacy, and analytics.
She first joined the IRS in 2021 as the agency’s chief data and analytics officer. Before that she spent 12 years holding at the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.
