Daniel Werfel

Identity and role

Danny Werfel, as IRS releases call him, was Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 2023 until he resigned on January 20, 2025. In the pandemic-relief record his file is the Employee Retention Credit (ERC): he ordered the processing moratorium of September 14, 2023, and his IRS built the withdrawal and voluntary-disclosure routes and the risk review that decided which claims would be paid.

Biography / career arc

A 2021 House hearing record cites a March 14, 2013 White House briefing by "Danny Werfel, Controller of the Office of Management and Budget." He was appointed IRS commissioner in 2023. Deputy Commissioner Doug O'Donnell had served as acting commissioner from November 2022 to March 2023, after Charles Rettig's tenure ended.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

Werfel's ERC record runs from warning to freeze to triage.

July 26, 2023. At a roundtable of tax professionals in Atlanta, Werfel said the IRS was entering a new phase of scrutiny on dubious ERC submissions. "The amount of misleading marketing around this credit is staggering," he said, and "this was not how the law was meant to work, and Congress can help with this situation."

September 14, 2023. Werfel ordered an immediate moratorium, through at least December 31, on processing new ERC claims. Claims already filed kept moving, but the standard processing goal went from 90 days to 180. The IRS said hundreds of criminal cases were being worked and thousands of claims had been referred for audit. "The IRS is increasingly alarmed about honest small business owners being scammed by unscrupulous actors, and we could no longer tolerate growing evidence of questionable claims pouring in," Werfel said.

The exits. The IRS set up a withdrawal process for claims not yet paid, or paid by a check not yet cashed or deposited; withdrawn claims "will be treated as if they were never filed," and the IRS does not impose penalties or interest. A Voluntary Disclosure Program covered businesses that had already been paid improperly.

January 10, 2024. Werfel briefed the Senate Finance Committee. The pause had produced "an immediate 40% decline in average weekly claims." The IRS had disallowed about 21,000 pending claims from businesses that did not exist during the credit period or did not pay W-2 wages, had found 20,000 claims where an erroneous or excessive credit had already gone out, and was sending more than 3,000 new compliance letters that month.

June 20, 2024. The IRS reported the results of its review of more than 1 million claims representing more than $86 billion. Between 10% and 20% fell in the highest-risk group, and tens of thousands of those would be denied; between 60% and 70% showed "an unacceptable level of risk"; between 10% and 20% showed low risk, and the IRS would begin processing more of those filed before the moratorium. The moratorium on claims filed after September 14, 2023 stayed in place, with more than 1.4 million claims unprocessed. Compliance work from the disclosure program, withdrawals and disallowances had topped $2 billion.

August 2024. "This has been a resource-intensive credit for IRS teams to evaluate," Werfel said on August 8. A week later the IRS reopened the Voluntary Disclosure Program through November 22, at a 15% discount; the first round, which ended in March, had drawn more than 2,600 applications disclosing $1.09 billion in credits, and the agency said it would mail up to 30,000 letters to reverse or recapture more than $1 billion in claims.

October 10, 2024. The IRS said about 400,000 claims worth about $10 billion were being processed.

Their own relief

SBA's public PPP loan data list no loan to a borrower named Daniel or Danny Werfel.

Legal status / controversies

No criminal charge, civil enforcement order, settlement, conviction or fraud finding against Werfel appears in the sources cited here.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Werfel announced his resignation to IRS employees on Friday, January 17, 2025: "After significant introspection and consultation with others, I've determined the best way to support a successful transition is to depart the IRS on January 20, 2025." His term had been set to run into late 2027. President-elect Donald Trump had said he would nominate former Missouri congressman Billy Long, and O'Donnell again became acting head of the agency. No later role is documented in the sources cited here.