Elon Musk’s DOGE removes IRS crypto policy officers

Two crypto directors just vanished from the IRS, and it happened because of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) run directly under President Donald Trump.

On Friday, Seth Wilks and Raj Mukherjee were reportedly told to accept deferred resignations, meaning they’re still technically employed for a few months, but they’ve already been pushed out and placed on paid leave. The orders were part of a government-wide cleanout that started earlier this year. DOGE is leading that charge.

Both Wilks and Mukherjee came from the private crypto sector before joining the IRS. Seth used to be a vice president at TaxBit, and Raj previously worked as head of tax for Binance.US and also held a senior role at ConsenSys. The two had barely been in office since February 2024, when they were brought in to help rebuild the agency’s approach to taxing crypto.

Trump’s DOGE campaign forces mass exit of crypto officials

They were hired to lead compliance, reporting, and crypto enforcement programs. They had also been managing the agency’s work with the crypto industry itself. Their biggest known task was helping launch a new tax form, the 1099-DA, which rolled out last summer.

That form was meant to help Americans report income and trades linked to crypto. Both officials were also working on new IRS rules tailored to the crypto space.

One rule they helped finish, right before the Biden administration ended, targeted DeFi brokers with tough new data collection demands. That rule got wiped out earlier this year through the Congressional Review Act, with President Trump signing the joint resolution.

It was one of the first signs that DOGE wasn’t just trimming staff — it was rewriting the government’s approach to crypto regulation altogether.

Seth held the title of executive director of digital asset strategy and development, while Raj served as executive director of the digital assets office. They were the most senior crypto officers inside the IRS.

But according to CoinDesk, they both accepted voluntary buyout offers ahead of a much larger round of staff cuts. The federal government had already warned that IRS reductions were coming fast.

Over 20,000 IRS employees have already signed onto the same deferred resignation plan, as reported last month by the New York Times.

Everyone in that program is being placed on paid leave until September, after which most won’t return. That’s part of the DOGE directive to cut down bloated staffing left behind by the Biden administration.

The IRS had been expanded by roughly 20,000 workers under Biden’s leadership, with the goal of pulling in more tax revenue. But Trump’s team is doing the opposite. They’re slashing those numbers and focusing on “efficiency,” as confirmed by a Treasury Department spokesperson.

“The Secretary is committed to ensuring that efficiency is realized while providing the collections, privacy and customer service the American people deserve,” the spokesperson said on behalf of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Even higher up, the exits didn’t stop at crypto officers. Melanie Krause, the IRS’s acting commissioner, also left. She wasn’t alone. Several top officials left with her after the agency agreed to start sharing taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That decision came directly from the Trump administration and was meant to aid the deportation of undocumented immigrants. The IRS has always kept taxpayer data confidential. That change triggered internal unrest and pushed several longtime officials to walk.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More