By Brian Schwartz and Richard Rubin

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has appointed Frank Bisignano to be the chief executive officer of the Internal Revenue Service, creating a new position to help run the beleaguered tax agency.

Bisignano will retain his job running the Social Security Administration while managing the IRS's day-to-day operations, according to senior administration officials. He will report directly to Bessent, who will remain the formal head of the IRS as acting commissioner. The move lets the administration install a Trump appointee at the IRS quickly without going through the Senate confirmation process.

Bisignano will help implement the administration's vision for the IRS, which emphasizes upgraded technology and retreats from the heavier enforcement initiatives started under President Joe Biden. He'll face two immediate challenges: getting ready for the early 2026 tax-filing season and managing a government shutdown. The IRS is fully open for the first five business days of the shutdown using money outside of annual appropriations; it is less certain what happens beyond that.

In a year of turmoil for federal agencies, the IRS has been particularly messy. Seven people have served as commissioner or acting commissioner this year, starting with Biden appointee Danny Werfel and ending with Bessent.

As part of that carousel, the Senate confirmed Billy Long, an ally of President Trump and former House Republican who lasted less than two months. Long, who lacked a management or tax background, clashed with Treasury officials before Trump removed him and tapped him as ambassador to Iceland, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. Trump hasn't nominated a new permanent commissioner yet.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) said last month that he hoped the administration would offer an IRS nominee. "We need some stability there, " he said.

Below the top job, many senior IRS officials have quit or been removed this year. The agency's organizational chart of top executives includes 29 posts, and as of late August, 19 were vacant or held by acting officials.

On paper, Bisignano is the kind of executive that presidents of both parties have picked to run the tax agency in the past 30 years. He's the former chief executive of Fiserv, the payments processing company, which means he has experience in running a large organization that manages sensitive data and complex information-technology projects.

Bisignano has sought to bring improvements to Social Security's customer service apparatus, reducing wait times on the agency's 1-800 number and incorporating artificial intelligence into the phone system. He presides over an agency that has seen workforce reductions this year under the Trump administration.

He has a difficult few months ahead. The new tax law that Trump signed on July 4 must be implemented, a process that requires writing regulations, adjusting the agency's software and forms and training employees to answer questions.

The law extended expiring tax breaks and created some new ones for tax year 2025, including new or expanded deductions for tipped workers, overtime pay, senior citizens and people with high state and local tax bills.

Republicans are counting on a gusher of tax refunds from those provisions early in 2026 to buoy their political fortunes for the midterm elections. Delays and jammed phone lines at the IRS could complicate that.

One senior official who has remained on the job is Ken Corbin, the taxpayer services chief who effectively runs the filing season. The presence of an agency veteran who has steered through multiple crises has given IRS observers some confidence that a smooth season is possible. Still, there are warning signs.

In a report last week, the agency's inspector general warned that job cuts this year have left the IRS potentially underprepared. The IRS lost 17% of its accounts-management staff, reducing the number of people who process correspondence. By next September, the report said, the agency's paperwork backlog could exceed pandemic levels that frustrated taxpayers.

A new initiative to scan documents and reduce paper processing is also struggling, the report said. That could hurt the IRS's ability to run the filing season with fewer employees. The IRS has begun hiring to fill the gaps, effectively reversing some of the job cuts the Trump administration started.

"They've blown things up, fired people, now gone, 'Oops, my bad, now we need to hire some of these people back,'" said Nina Olson, the former national taxpayer advocate, an internal agency watchdog.

Olson said she worries that the loss of experienced staff will make it harder for taxpayers to get individualized help with identity theft and other complicated problems.

The agency's funding also remains in limbo and won't be resolved until after Congress sorts out the government shutdown.

Under Biden, Congress gave the IRS nearly $80 billion in additional money to expand enforcement and update technology. But Republicans clawed back more than half of that, and as of March 31, the IRS had spent $13.8 billion of what was left.

Write to Brian Schwartz at brian.schwartz@wsj.com and Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 06, 2025 08:32 ET (12:32 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.