NextFin News - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed on Wednesday that he is personally "performing the duties" of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner, a revelation that has intensified a political firestorm over a recent tax settlement involving U.S. President Trump. During a contentious Senate Finance Committee hearing, Bessent clarified that while his formal term as acting commissioner expired in March, the agency’s responsibilities have "flowed up" to his office due to the vacancy of the top post.
The administrative maneuver, which the IRS quietly posted on its website on March 13, allows Bessent to retain authority over the tax bureau without the "acting commissioner" title. This distinction became the focal point of a sharp exchange with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who questioned whether this arrangement grants the Treasury Secretary direct oversight of the President’s personal and business tax matters. The scrutiny follows a high-profile settlement between the Department of Justice and U.S. President Trump, which Democrats allege provides the President’s family and businesses with unprecedented audit protections and financial relief.
Bessent, a former hedge fund manager and key economic advisor to the Trump campaign, has long maintained a stance of fiscal pragmatism and institutional loyalty. His background as the founder of Key Square Group and a protégé of George Soros—though he has since become a staunch conservative ally—positions him as a figure who understands the mechanics of high finance but is now operating in a deeply polarized political environment. His current role in managing the IRS is viewed by supporters as a necessary step to ensure agency stability, while critics see it as a potential conflict of interest given his proximity to the Oval Office.
The debate centers on whether the "Trump treatment"—a settlement reportedly triggered by the leak of the President’s tax information by a former contractor—will be extended to hundreds of thousands of other taxpayers whose data was also compromised. Senator Cortez Masto pressed Bessent on whether the Treasury would offer similar audit shields to ordinary citizens. Bessent’s insistence that he is merely performing duties rather than holding the title of acting commissioner suggests a legal strategy to maintain executive control while distancing the office from the formal requirements of the Vacancies Act.
This administrative structure is not without precedent, but its application to the IRS during a period of active presidential litigation is highly unusual. Historically, the Treasury Secretary has broad oversight of its bureaus, yet the IRS has traditionally maintained a degree of operational independence to avoid the appearance of political interference in tax enforcement. The current arrangement effectively collapses that distance, placing the President’s chief economic officer in direct control of the nation’s tax collector.
The political implications are immediate, as the Senate Finance Committee continues to investigate the "DOJ fund" used in the settlement. While the Treasury argues that the move is a standard procedural response to a leadership vacuum, the lack of a formal nominee for the IRS commissioner post suggests that Bessent may continue to wield this dual authority for the foreseeable future. The outcome of this scrutiny will likely depend on whether the administration can demonstrate that the IRS’s handling of the President’s taxes remains consistent with its treatment of the broader taxpayer base.
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