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Charles Rettig
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Charles Rettig

Official · IRS

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Person
Role
Official · IRS
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The profile

IRS Commissioner during the pandemic filing seasons and the Economic Impact Payments. Pandemic-program role: 49th Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the IRS official in post while the agency processed the Economic Impact Payments and worked through pandemic-era filing seasons. Institution · office: Internal Revenue Service · Commissioner · Type: political (PAS) Tenure (relief-relevant): Took the oath as 49th Commissioner in 2018; his final message as Commissioner was published Nov. 10, 2022. Chamberlain Hrdlicka's firm biography gives his IRS service as 2018 through 2022.

Identity and role

Charles "Chuck" Rettig is a tax attorney and former Commissioner of Internal Revenue. His official House witness biography identifies him as the 49th Commissioner of the IRS, presiding over a tax system that collects more than $3.5 trillion a year and managing an agency of about 80,000 employees on a budget of more than $11 billion.1 In his final message, published November 10, 2022, he wrote: "Four years ago, I proudly took the oath of office to become the 49th Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service."2

Before the IRS he was with the law firm Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez, P.C. for more than 36 years, representing individuals, businesses and corporate taxpayers before the IRS, the Justice Department's Tax Division, and federal and state courts.1 He holds a B.A. in economics from UCLA, a J.D. with honors from Pepperdine and an LL.M. in taxation from NYU.1

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

Rettig's IRS carried the household side of pandemic relief. His witness biography records that in FY2020 the IRS processed more than 163 million individual tax returns, including more than 125 million refunds totaling more than $320 billion, while closing over 90 percent of its facilities early in the pandemic. It adds that within two weeks of the CARES Act the agency began processing 161 million Economic Impact Payments totaling approximately $271 billion. Within two days of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, it says, the IRS processed a further 147 million payments totaling more than $142 billion.1

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Rettig is a shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka in the firm's Tax Controversy & Litigation practice; the firm's biography states that he "served as the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 2018 through 2022" and that before the IRS he practised tax law in Los Angeles for more than 36 years.3

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources

  1. "Biography of Charles P. Rettig, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service," witness biography filed for the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations hearing of Apr. 21, 2022. Archive: HHRG-117-GO24-Bio-RettigC-20220421.pdf · Biography of IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig, April 21, 2022 (original: congress.gov) ↩
  2. IRS, "IRS Statement — IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig's final message," Nov. 10, 2022. Archive: irs-statement-commissioner-charles-rettig-final-message_2022-11-10 · IRS Statement — IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig's Final Message (original: irs.gov) ↩
  3. Chamberlain Hrdlicka, "Charles 'Chuck' Rettig" firm biography. Archive: chamberlain-hrdlicka-charles-rettig_2026-09-18 · https://www.chamberlainlaw.com/people-charles_rettig.html ↩
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