IRS Commissioner Nominee Vows to Rehabilitate Tax Agency

John Koskinen, President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, said at a Senate panel’s confirmation hearing that he would work to restore the public’s trust in the tax agency.

“With 95,000 employees and the range of challenges the agency faces, mistakes will happen,” Koskinen said today in prepared testimony for the Senate Finance Committee in Washington. “So the realistic goal is to find problems quickly, make sure they stay fixed and be transparent about the entire process.”

The panel hasn’t set a vote on Koskinen’s nomination, but in addition to continuing congressional investigations into its treatment of politically oriented nonprofit groups, the IRS faces an aging workforce, budget constraints and congressional mandates to administer parts of the 2010 health-care law.

Koskinen is a former chairman of Freddie Mac who developed a reputation as a turnaround specialist in the public and private sectors. He led the federal government’s efforts to prepare for problems in case computers with space for two-digit years acted as if 1900 followed 1999, and he was city administrator in the District of Columbia.

Koskinen said Congress needs to reverse IRS budget cuts that he said have reduced the workforce by 11,000 employees.

House Republicans proposed a spending plan earlier this year that would cut the IRS budget by 24 percent from the $11.9 billion it received in fiscal 2013. The Obama administration has proposed a $1 billion increase.

According to disclosures he filed this year, Koskinen’s net worth is from $7.1 million to $27.4 million. In those disclosures he said he would resign his position as a director of AES Corp. and American Capital Ltd. and sell stock holdings.

Since the beginning of 2007, Koskinen has donated $25,600 to Democratic candidates and causes, including $7,300 to Obama and $3,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.