Monday, February 16, 2026

Death of Joseph Salus (2/16/26)

Joseph Salus II died on February 13. The obituary from WAPO is here. The portion of the obituary on the Tax Division and related career is:

Joe had a long, illustrious career as a "supergrade" (now, SES) trial attorney (tax) at the U.S. Department of Treasury, IRS Office of the Chief Counsel and then at the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Tax Division. He held temporary assignments at the U.S. Department of State, where he negotiated Mutual Assistance (Tax) Agreement treaties. A lifelong true Republican, Joe famously took on Richard M. Nixon in a tax-related case.

It is not clear whether the Nixon “tax-related case” was while he was with DOJ Tax or with the IRS. If anyone recalls the story behind that cryptic comment, please tell the story in a comment below or email it to me (jack@tjtaxlaw.com) and state whether I have permission to post as a comment on this blog entry and identify the source.

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