President Trump’s removal of Billy Long as head of the IRS after only two months on the job has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on the agency, which already churned through six different leaders this year.
Multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Hill that leadership at the Treasury Department clashed with Long and that there were concerns within the administration that he was not a good fit to lead an agency that prides itself on implementing tax policy without getting caught up in partisan drama.
But his exit also means the IRS will have its seventh commissioner of the calendar year, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent taking over on an interim basis.
“I think they’re going through turbulence right now,” one source familiar with the matter told The Hill. “People just don’t know yet what the future holds.”
Long was a controversial choice to lead the IRS, which is a technocratic agency responsible for collecting tax revenue and enforcing the nation’s tax laws. A former Republican congressman from Missouri, Long previously worked as an auctioneer and a real estate broker. He drew scrutiny over his promotion of a pandemic-era tax credit that was riddled with fraudulent claims.
The former congressman lasted less than two months on the job after being confirmed in June in a party-line Senate vote.
Sources told The Hill that there was growing frustration among Treasury officials with IRS leadership since Long’s arrival as commissioner. One source familiar with the matter said Long had gone off script and made remarks that required clarifications or cleaning up, something viewed as a particular issue on an issue as sensitive as taxes.
One incident in particular was viewed as the final straw when Long last month said at a conference that tax filing season would start in February next year, a change from the typical starting point of January.
In a social media post minutes after he announced his departure from the IRS, Long wrote that tax filing season “will start at the customary time around MLK Day.”
“These folks are pros and know what they are doing,” Long added of top Treasury officials.
One source told The Hill that senior Treasury officials felt Long’s tenure was “an impossible situation” that needed to be resolved.
The Washington Post reported that there was another reason for Long’s shift to an ambassadorship: That the IRS had clashed with the White House over a push to use private tax data to track down undocumented immigrants.
“I think the president wants to see Billy Long as the ambassador to Iceland. As you know, that’s where he will be headed,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to a question from The Hill during Tuesday’s press briefing. “And the president loves Billy Long, and he thinks that he can serve the administration well in this position.”
A Treasury spokesperson praised Long’s “zeal and enthusiasm to bring a fresh perspective to the Federal Government.” The spokesperson said a new candidate for IRS commissioner will be announced “at the appropriate time.”
Trump is expected to announce his choice to replace Long sooner rather than later. Bessent is already deeply involved in macro-economic issues and has been Trump’s point person on trade talks, making it difficult for him to also oversee the IRS even on an interim basis.
The next IRS commissioner will also be tasked with overseeing the first tax season since passage of the massive reconciliation bill. The legislation extended the 2017 tax cuts and enacted changes to the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, the child tax credit, taxes on tipped wages and taxes on overtime wages and various other smaller alterations.
“You want stability of leadership,” one source told The Hill. “That creates an atmosphere and environment for the organization to get its job done, to reduce mistakes and to meet its mission.”
The change atop the IRS comes at a time when Democrats are sounding alarms about Trump’s decision to push out Erika McEntarfer as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and replace her with a conservative economist.
The move came after the jobs report released in early August showed lower-than-expected hiring in July and major downward revisions to the jobs reports from May and June.
While Trump and his allies argued the change would improve transparency and accuracy, critics noted McEntarfer had little to do with what the numbers showed. Economists and lawmakers also expressed concern that it would erode credibility and confidence in government data, hurting businesses and consumers in the process.
“In just a handful of months, Trump and his crew have already gutted taxpayer service, weaponized IRS data against innocent taxpayers and set us up for disaster when next year’s filing season comes around,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “This is what Trump does — pick incompetent, unserious people for serious jobs, and sit back as the damage piles up.”
