Daniel "Danny" Werfel has at last taken his place as commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, almost four months to the day after his predecessor, Charles "Chuck" Rettig, completed his four-year term. 

Werfel's nomination was approved by the Senate earlier this month, by a bipartisan 54-42 margin, and becomes the agency's 50th commissioner. He was sworn office yesterday (March 13by IRS deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement Doug O’Donnell, who has served as acting commissioner since November.

Danny Werfel, a Washington, DC-based executive with the Boston Consulting Group consultancy, is to be nominated to succeed Charles "Chuck" Rettig as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the White House has announced.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has named IRS Deputy Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell to succeed IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig – at least for now – as acting IRS commissioner.

With the U.S. Midterm Elections scheduled to take place on Nov. 8, and no successor yet named to replace IRS Commissioner Charles "Chuck" Rettig – who is scheduled to leave office as of Nov. 12 – questions are beginning to be asked about what direction the Internal Revenue Service is likely to take from Nov. 13 onwards, according to tax industry sources and media reports.  

An investigative unit of the Internal Revenue Service has said that it has located 79 "tax evasion fugitives" in Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras as part of what is described as the result of "the first year of a new extradition initiative," the Reuters news agency has reported.

Many U.S. expats are still enjoying the sense that the annual nightmare of getting their American taxes done has come and gone, and they have a few months of peace before they need to begin worrying again. Others still have a few loose ends to tie up, and are keeping an eye on the final deadline for these left-to-complete bits that is moving ever closer by the day. (Monday, Oct. 17, in case you're wondering...)

Recently, a reader of the American Expat Financial News Journal got in touch to say that they were in the process of beginning to plan for Tax Year 2022 – and as part of this, wanted to know what help, if any, they might be able to get from a component of the IRS known as the "Taxpayer Advocate Service".

News that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act has now been signed into law by President Biden has seen a burst of articles and website comments about what the additional US$80 billion in funding that it provides for the Internal Revenue Service could mean for Americans living abroad.

As this and other media organizations have been reporting for years, such expats are already struggling to deal with the myriad tax complications and expenses that go with living abroad as an American citizen, as a result of the combination of the U.S.'s citizenship-based tax regime, and such mostly-recent laws as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. So the prospect of yet more IRS scrutiny has prompted many to worry...

In a surprise announcement that immediately triggered a burst of mostly positive reactions on social media, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday announced that it would be providing "broad-based penalty relief to most people and businesses who file certain 2019 and 2020 [tax] returns late," in an effort to "help struggling taxpayers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic". 

Friday's approval by the House of Representatives of the Inflation Reduction Act had been expected, but this was scant reassurance to many expatriate Americans who, after years of dealing with the taxation complexities that go with living abroad as a result of such laws as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, are wondering if the additional millions of fresh money that the act sets aside for the IRS will mean even more headaches for them. 

A 90-minute webinar for tax professionals, covering a range of some of the most complex topics U.S. expats currently face – including the way the IRS audits Americans abroad, the so-called Section 965 Transition Tax, the "exit tax" paid by wealthy Americans who are seeking to renounce, and other related subjects – will take place this Thursday, beginning at 1pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time (6pm British Summer Time, 7pm Central European Summer Time).