Josh Barro, Columnist

The Man Who Can Save the IRS

The IRS has no permanent commissioner. It needs one more than ever. But who would want the job?

May 15, 2013 at 4:11 PM UTC

Josh Barro is the lead writer for the Ticker, Bloomberg View's blog on economics, finance and politics. His primary areas of interest include tax and fiscal policy, state and local government, and planning and land use. Previously, Barro was a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a commercial real estate banker at Wells Fargo. He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and lives in Queens, New York.

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This would be quite the week for the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. If the Internal Revenue Service had a commissioner.

The position has been vacant since Douglas Shulman finished his term in November, and President Barack Obama still has yet to nominate a replacement. So the IRS is responding to the scandal over its inappropriate review of conservative non-profit organizations without a permanent leader. Obama won't be able to delay making a nomination much longer. But it's not clear who would want the job, be good at it and be able to get confirmed.