Politico: WELCOME ABOARD: Former IRS chief Chuck Rettig has a new gig, and with an old colleague
WELCOME ABOARD: Former IRS chief Chuck Rettig has a new gig, and with an old colleague.
Rettig is becoming chairman of the advisory board for IVIX, a relatively new outfit that leans on artificial intelligence to help sniff out financial crimes, including tax evasion.
He won’t be the only former higher-up from the IRS at the company, either. Don Fort, the former chief of the agency’s criminal investigation division, already is IVIX’s chief business officer.
Rettig told Weekly Tax in a joint interview with Fort that he expects to have a hands-on role at the company, with a position that’s far from ceremonial.
“Dozens of places approached me fora role, and what I told them was, the commissioner’s title is not for sale,” Rettig said.
The areas that IVIX focuses on, Rettig added — improving tax administration and helping both the private sector and the IRS “leverage important human resources” — are all areas that he wants to work on following his stint as commissioner.
During the interview, both Fort and Rettig stressed that companies like IVIX help fill a void that currently exists at the IRS — having the technological power to sift through publicly available data and offer leads to auditors and investigators.
Which begs the question: Is IVIX now even more useful to an IRS that has shed thousands of employees this year— and by one measure from earlier this year, was losing around a third of its auditors?
“1,000 percent,” Rettig said.
Fort argued that IVIX’s services and information were especially useful for less experienced auditors, who might need more assistance in knowing which cases to chase and which to ditch.
“I don’t think we’ve found the right balance between tech and employees,” Rettig said, in discussing the Trump administration’s overarching strategy of leaning more broadly on technology for the IRS’s core operations.
“The right balance is there, but I don’t think we’ve found it,” added Rettig who was nominated by Trump to be IRS chief in his first term.