After a few months of relative calm at the highest levels of the Internal Revenue Service (following turbulence and high-level executive turnover that marked much of 2025), the tax agency is making more leadership changes. IRS chief executive officer Frank Bisignano, who also serves as commissioner of the Social Security Administration and was named IRS “chief executive officer” – a new position that never previously existed – in October 2025, announced the moves on the eve of the 2026 tax filing season, which starts today.
First, Bisignano announced that IRS-Criminal Investigation Division Chief Guy Ficco will retire after 30 years of federal service. In December, Ficco had advised IRS-CI employees that he intended to continue leading the unit in 2026. In October, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was planning to make significant changes at the IRS, including a reorganization of IRS-CI, to permit the agency to undertake investigations of left-leaning organizations. This effort was led by Gary Shapely, a then-advisor to the Treasury Secretary who had served as acting IRS Commissioner for two days and testified publicly as a whistleblower regarding investigations of Hunter Biden. The article reported that Shapely planned to remove Ficco as part of the effort. Bisignano said that Shapely will now serve as deputy chief of IRS-CI.
Jarod Koopman, who currently serves as Acting Chief Tax Compliance Officer, will take over leadership of IRS-CI. Koopman has held a variety of positions at IRS-CI and led the creation of the unit’s Cyber Crimes and Cyber and Forensics Services sections.
Second, Bisignano announced several IRS executive personnel changes and stated that more of these leadership positions will now report directly to him. David Borden, who joined the IRS three years ago and most recently worked in the Office of Chief Counsel, was named head of the Independent Office of Appeals. Todd Newman, who was part of the DOGE team at Treasury, was named chief financial officer. Joseph Ziegler, a former IRS-CI special agent and another whistleblower regarding Hunter Biden, was named chief of internal consulting, a new position in the executive structure. Alex Kweskin was named chief human capital officer. According to the Washington Post, sixteen IRS executives will report directly to Bisignano under the new structure.
With the tax filing season opening today, the IRS expects to receive about 164 million individual tax returns for tax year 2025.
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