Helming the IRS is Like Being Mayor of the Worst City in America

A regular management and leadership column at the Washington Post recently published an interview with the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Douglas H. Shulman. After a few pleasant answers about management style, he provides insight into the size of his agency: “I’m like a mayor of a medium-sized city.”

IRS lists it’s total number of employees somewhere around 106,000. According to the U.S. Census, Mr. Shulman and his underlings could entirely occupy such cities as:

  • Green Bay, Wisconsin
  • Wilmington, North Carolina
  • Boulder, Colorado
  • Berkeley, California
  • South Bend, Indiana

Yes, it takes a workforce of this size to enforce our bloated, antediluvian tax code.