Fred T. Goldberg Jr.

For the professional poker player, see Fred Goldberg.

Fred T. Goldberg Jr. (born October 15, 1947) is an American tax lawyer who has held high-ranking positions in the United States government, including the positions of Chief Counsel of the IRS, Commissioner of Internal Revenue,^[1] and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy. Outside of government, he has had a distinguished legal career in private practice and has been active in tax policy initiatives. His career is marked by major contributions to tax administration, including reforms to improve taxpayer services and efforts to modernize the IRS.

Fred Goldberg
Commissioner of Internal Revenue
In office July 5, 1989 – February 2, 1992
President	George H. W. Bush
Preceded by	Michael Murphy
Succeeded by	Shirley D. Peterson
Personal details
Born	(1947-10-15) October 15, 1947 (age 77)
Education	Yale University (BA, JD)

Career

Goldberg graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in 1969. After obtaining his B.A., he was a special assistant at the Office of Economic Opportunity. In 1971, he accepted a position as an assistant dean for Yale's Calhoun College and was an instructor in political science and economics at Yale. He held these positions until 1973, when he completed his juris doctor degree at Yale Law School.

After completing his J.D., was hired as an associate with the firm Latham, Watkins, and Hills. He was named as a partner in the firm in 1981. He worked with the firm until 1984.

From 1982 to 1986, Goldberg worked at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS):

• Assistant to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (1981–1982)
• Acting director of the Legislation and Regulations Division, Office of the Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service (1982)
• Chief counsel for the Internal Revenue Service (1984–1986)

In 1989, Goldberg was selected to be the commissioner of the IRS. He held that position until 1992, when he was chosen as assistant secretary for tax policy in the United States Department of the Treasury. He currently^[when?] resides in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family and is a partner in the office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Career accolades

In September 2022, Goldberg was named to the Washingtonian's 2022 Top Lawyers Hall of Fame.^[2]

Interactions with Scientology

Allegedly, Scientology officials, including the Church leader David Miscavige, arrived at his office without an appointment one day to petition for relief.^[3] The meeting was not listed on Goldberg's appointment calendar, which was obtained by The New York Times through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).^{[citation needed]}

While details are not known, it was under Goldberg's administration that the long running IRS/Scientology legal conflict ended,^[4] though it took two years (under two other commissioners) to work out the details.^[5] Scientology received a unique tax exemption in 1993 and the IRS has refused to release the agreement, even after a FOIA request by The New York Times and when requested by the court in the Sklar case.^[6] (A draft version of the agreement was leaked to The Wall Street Journal and published late in 1997.)^[7]

In early 2002, Judge Silverman, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote the following:

If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members of the Church of Scientology—allowing them a special right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else—then the proper course of action is a lawsuit to stop that policy. The remedy is not to require the IRS to let others claim the improper deduction, too.^[8]