President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he needs ex-congressman Billy Long, a Republican from Missouri and a former auctioneer, to run the IRS. As a lawmaker, Long co-sponsored legislation that aimed to wipe out a lot of the tax code.
In making the announcement, Trump praised Long’s “32 years of expertise working his personal companies in Real Estate and, as one of many premier Auctioneers within the Country.” He additionally famous that since leaving Congress in 2023, Long has labored as a enterprise and tax adviser.
While Trump did not point out the present IRS Commissioner, Danny Werfel, in his announcement, the choice indicators the president-elect is more likely to exchange him with Long after taking workplace in January, Lindsay Owens, government director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive financial assume tank, instructed CBS MoneyWatch.
Naming Long as the following IRS chief drew each assist from conservatives in addition to criticism from the left, with Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia who serves on the House Ways and Means Tax subcommittee calling it a “horrible mistake,” whereas Idaho Republican Senator Mike Crapo issued a press release saying he is wanting ahead to listening to Long’s concepts for the tax company. The fiscally conservative National Taxpayers Union Foundation praised Trump’s alternative, saying Long might assist reform the IRS.
Long has lately served as a tax adviser to companies in search of to make use of a controversial tax credit score, however, in contrast to prior IRS commissioners, his background is basically exterior of the tax business, specialists famous.
“This man is an auctioneer — that is his experience,” Owens famous. “This is an extremely unserious alternative.”
Werfel, who was appointed by President Biden, stepped into the function in 2023, along with his time period set to run out in 2027. Typically, presidents enable IRS commissioners to serve out their time period, as Mr. Biden allowed Trump’s former IRS appointee, Charles Rettig, to do earlier than naming Werfel to the function.
If the Senate approves his appointment to the IRS, Long would oversee an company with 85,000 workers and an annual finances exceeding $12 billion.
A spokesperson for the Trump marketing campaign declined to remark.
Here’s what to learn about Long and the IRS.
Who is Billy Long?
Long, who attended the University of Missouri however did not graduate, described himself on a website for his congressional run as a “fourth-generation native of Southwest Missouri.” He touted his expertise as an auctioneer, noting that he had been named the “greatest auctioneer within the Ozarks for seven years in a row.”
Long additionally labored in actual property and in discuss radio, internet hosting a present on a Missouri AM radio station.
He shuttered his public sale agency, Billy Long Auctions, earlier than he was sworn into Congress in 2011, based on a neighborhood publication.
What skilled expertise does Long have with taxes?
As a congressman, Long co-sponsored some tax-related payments, together with a number of efforts to eliminate the estate tax in addition to a measure known as the Tax Code Termination Act.
That laws would have worn out a lot of the present tax code, changing it with what the invoice known as a “easy and truthful system” that may have utilized “a low fee to all Americans.” Such flat taxes are considered regressive by many specialists as a result of low- and middle-income taxpayers would find yourself paying a bigger share of their incomes than would rich Americans.
“As a enterprise proprietor, Billy is aware of first-hand how authorities regulation and heavy taxes can have an effect on the small companies that function the financial engine of our nation,” his marketing campaign web site famous.
While Long is not an accountant or CPA, he has been concerned in tax advising since leaving Congress. In a 2023 podcast, for instance, he touted his work serving to companies use the Employee Retention Tax Credit, a credit score that the IRS has flagged for its excessive fee of fraud.
In the podcast, Long additionally stated that when he served as a congressman, he helped make the ERTC simpler for companies to say, noting that the credit score was troublesome to qualify for throughout its first iteration.
“We went from having to say COVID adversely affected your small business positively, to taking that away, and you do not have to show that you simply had any downturn,” he stated. “We’re doing recoveries for folk that had their greatest two years ever throughout COVID.”
The IRS says the ERTC is geared toward employers who paid wages to employees between March 12, 2020, and January 1, 2022, and that had been both suspended by authorities order in the course of the pandemic or skilled a “required decline in gross receipts throughout 2020 or the primary three calendar quarters of 2021.” The credit score can be obtainable to startups that started on the finish of 2021 and had lower than $1 million in income.
How does Long’s expertise examine with prior IRS commissioners?
Long’s lack of tax business expertise units him aside from different latest IRS commissioners.
Werfel, the present IRS chief, has an undergraduate diploma from Cornell University and a grasp’s diploma in public coverage from Duke University in addition to a regulation diploma from the University of North Carolina. He’s additionally held various authorities jobs concerned in operations and the IRS, together with serving as performing commissioner of the IRS from May to December 2013, according to his biography.
Werfel’s predecessor, Charles Rettig, who was appointed by President-elect Trump, additionally held a number of levels, together with a grasp’s in taxation. Before becoming a member of the IRS, Rettig labored as a tax legal professional for greater than three a long time and served because the chairman of the IRS Advisory Council.
What is going on with the IRS now?
Under Werfel, the IRS has expanded audits of rich taxpayers and massive firms, clawing again billions in unpaid taxes, efforts that had been funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.
The tax company has additionally diminished the time it takes shoppers to attach with an IRS worker, whereas additionally rolling out a free tax filing system known as Direct File.
Some Republican lawmakers have pushed again in opposition to the expanded IRS funding, claiming the company would use the cash to rent 1000’s of latest brokers to extend audits on middle-class taxpayers.
The Treasury had stated that funding might assist the IRS add practically 87,000 full-time employees over 10 years, however the company did not specify whether or not these new employees could be auditors, customer support employees or different kinds of workers. That determine additionally represented the overall variety of workers that could possibly be employed, with out calculating the influence of the variety of IRS employees who’re anticipated to retire or depart the division over the following a number of years.
Some Democratic lawmakers are expressing concern that, if appointed, Long might disrupt the progress that the IRS has made below Werfel.
Werfel “has accomplished a superb job rebuilding the IRS, boosting customer support and enhancing enforcement geared toward rich tax evaders,” Rep. Beyer stated in a press release. “Removing him will clearly sign Trump’s intention to make the company much less aware of the American folks, whereas giving a inexperienced mild to rich tax cheats to evade their fair proportion of the tax burden.”
Still, Republican lawmakers expressed assist for the choose, resembling Senator Crapo, who highlighted “privateness and safety” points on the IRS and “inefficient use of sources.” He added, “I stay up for studying extra about Mr. Long’s imaginative and prescient for the company.”
