IRS Crypto Leaders Exit After Accepting #DOGE Resignation Offers

Two pivotal figures leading the IRS’s cryptocurrency efforts, Seth Wilks and Raj Mukherjee, departed the agency on Friday after accepting deferred resignation offers under a government efficiency initiative.

Wilks and Mukherjee—both recruited from the crypto industry—technically remain IRS employees for the next few months but have been placed on paid administrative leave as of Friday afternoon, according to sources familiar with the matter. The voluntary exit program, part of a broader federal workforce reduction strategy under former President Donald Trump’s ##DOGE initiative, allowed employees to defer their resignations while receiving benefits.

Wilks, formerly a vice president at TaxBit, and Mukherjee, who previously led tax operations at ConsenSys and Binance.US, joined the IRS Digital Asset Initiative in February 2024. Their roles included shaping the agency’s crypto taxation strategy, developing reporting and compliance frameworks, and collaborating with industry stakeholders. Among their key contributions was the updated Form 1099-DA, introduced last summer to streamline tax reporting for digital asset transactions.

Additionally, the pair played a central role in drafting IRS crypto tax regulations, including a controversial rule imposing data collection requirements on DeFi brokers. Finalized in the final days of the Biden administration, the rule was later overturned by Congress under the Congressional Review Act—a repeal signed into law by ##Trump100Days Trump.

Wilks served as the IRS’s Executive Director of Digital Asset Strategy and Development, while Mukherjee led as Executive Director of the Digital Assets Office. Sources indicate that their departures precede anticipated IRS staffing cuts, with over 20,000 employees reportedly opting for the deferred resignation program, per a New York Times report last month.