IRS Crypto Division Leaders Leave Agency After DOGE Deals
The couple accepted voluntary resignation offers and left their positions after just over a year in the public sector, two sources said.
Author: Nikhilesh De | Edited by: Cheyenne Ligon, Benjamin Schiller Updated: May 2, 2025, 8:13 PM Published: May 2, 2025, 8:10 PM
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Friday lost two key directors focused on cryptocurrency initiatives, Seth Wilkes and Raj Mukherjee, after they accepted delayed resignation offers from the Department of Government Effectiveness.
Wilkes and Mukherjee, who both came to the IRS from the crypto industry, will technically remain IRS employees for the next few months, but have been on paid administrative leave since Friday afternoon, two people familiar with the matter told CoinDesk. President Donald Trump’s administration, via DOGE, offered furloughs to a wide range of federal employees earlier this year.
Wilkes, who previously served as vice president of TaxBit, and Mukherjee, who previously headed the tax department at ConsenSys and Binance.US, joined the IRS Digital Asset Initiative in February 2024 and were tasked with helping the IRS develop an effective approach to taxing cryptocurrencies, including leading the agency’s efforts to create reporting, compliance, and enforcement programs for cryptocurrencies and coordinating with the industry. They worked on an updated 1099-DA tax form that was distributed last summer to help U.S. citizens file taxes related to digital asset transactions.
The pair also oversaw part of the agency's efforts to develop tax regulations for the crypto industry.
The IRS finalized one such rule, establishing certain data collection requirements for decentralized finance (DeFi) brokers in the final days of former President Joe Biden’s administration. That rule was repealed by Congress earlier this year under the Congressional Review Act in a joint resolution signed by Trump.
Wilkes served as executive director of digital asset strategy and development for the Internal Revenue Service, while Mukherjee served as executive director of the Office of Digital Assets.
Both officials agreed to voluntary resignations, but those delayed resignations came ahead of expected IRS staff cuts, CoinDesk said.
More than 20,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees signed up for a deferred separation program last month, according to the New York Times, and those employees will be on administrative leave through the end of September.
Cheyenne Ligon contributed to this report.
