Trish Turner has resigned as head of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) digital assets division after only about three months in the role. Her departure marks the third leadership change in less than two years — following Sulolit “Raj” Mukherjee and Seth Wilks, both private-sector recruits who each lasted around a year.
In a LinkedIn post on Friday, Turner reflected on nearly 20 years at the IRS, calling the role “an extraordinary chapter” of her career. “Together, we navigated complex challenges, built lasting programs, and laid the groundwork for the IRS’s digital asset strategy as it shifted from niche to mainstream,” she wrote.
While Turner didn’t reveal her next role in the post, Bloomberg Tax reported she will become tax director at Crypto Tax Girl, a firm specializing in crypto tax services. Founder Laura Walter confirmed the move in her own LinkedIn post: “With all of the big crypto tax and compliance changes on the horizon, we are excited to have Trish on board to help advise our clients.”
Her resignation comes at a time of mounting regulatory and political tension around crypto taxation in the U.S. Earlier in July, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on establishing a clear policy framework for digital assets. Around the same time, the Treasury’s Inspector General urged reforms in the IRS criminal investigations unit over repeated failures in handling crypto cases.
The broader regulatory environment is also shifting. In April, President Donald Trump signed a congressional resolution overturning a Biden-era rule that would have forced decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report user transactions to the IRS. Meanwhile, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has floated proposals to cut IRS staff by 20%.
The leadership vacuum at the IRS’s crypto division highlights the difficulties regulators face in keeping pace with fast-moving digital asset markets. Turner’s exit may delay the agency’s efforts to build a consistent long-term crypto tax strategy — a challenge that will only intensify as crypto adoption expands and new policy battles emerge in Washington.
