By Richard Rubin
President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate former Rep. Billy Long as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, signaling his intent to oust Danny Werfel before his term ends in November 2027.
Werfel, who was picked by President Biden, has been running the tax agency since March 2023. He has been implementing the agency's enforcement expansion and technology changes, which Democrats approved in 2022 over Republicans' objections. Trump's decision to pick a new commissioner could signal a significant change in direction for the IRS, which has more than 80,000 workers and directly touches far more Americans than almost any other federal agency.
An IRS spokeswoman didn't immediately comment.
Long, 69 years old, represented rural southwest Missouri as a Republican from 2011 to 2023, and worked for decades as a professional auctioneer. The IRS job requires Senate confirmation, and Trump hadn't signaled before Wednesday that he intended to replace Werfel.
"He is an extremely hard worker, and respected by all, especially by those who know him in Congress," Trump said in a statement Wednesday evening. "Taxpayers and the wonderful employees of the IRS will love having Billy at the helm."
Since leaving Congress, Long has worked as a business and tax adviser. He has been encouraging businesses and nonprofits to seek the employee retention tax credit, a pandemic-era tax break that Werfel and the IRS have clamped down on, citing fraud and ineligible claims.
Biden chose Werfel, a government executive turned consultant, to lead the agency after Congress approved an $80 billion expansion intended to make up for years of budget cuts and improve the agency's operations. He has tried to improve taxpayer service by providing more online tools for people to get information and answers from the agency. That includes Direct File, a portal opposed by Republicans that lets some taxpayers file free returns to the government. The agency hired thousands of people to answer taxpayers' phone calls and process tax returns, reducing wait times and backlogs.
Werfel also started hiring thousands of people to bolster enforcement, particularly aiming at high-income households, complex partnerships and large corporations. The agency has pointed to some early revenue from collections efforts but the major auditing work was expected to take years to develop.
Trump and Long could begin slowing or reversing some of those initiatives. Republicans in Congress say the agency is too intrusive, particularly in auditing small businesses, and Werfel's attempts to build bipartisan support for his work never gained momentum. Congress has already clawed back more than $20 billion of the enforcement money and they could go further next year.
"Billy Long's nomination to lead the IRS is bad news for middle-class taxpayers and a win for ultrawealthy tax cheats," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.). "He has zero relevant experience for this critical management role and this pick -- along with the unprecedented firing of the current commissioner -- should set off alarm bells about the weaponization of the tax agency."
Congress set up the timing of the IRS commissioner's five-year term so it overlaps presidents' terms, but the president can fire the commissioner. Although the agency is run by a presidentially chosen commissioner and chief counsel, IRS officials aim to stay out of politics as much as possible.
Trump faced a similar situation with an incumbent commissioner when he took office in 2017. Then, he kept John Koskinen, who had been picked by President Barack Obama, having tax lawyer Chuck Rettig succeed him only after Koskinen's term ended. Werfel had indicated that he planned to stay regardless of the election outcome.
"I'm supportive of IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel and every individual who has served as Commissioner," Rettig said in an email Wednesday. "If Commissioner Werfel leaves the IRS and Billy Long is confirmed to succeed Commissioner Werfel, I'm hopeful Billy Long will quickly grasp the importance of the IRS and the IRS employees to the overall success of our country."
Long's political background is notably different from other IRS commissioners, and he wasn't deeply involved in tax policy or tax administration while in the House. He doesn't have the long tax track record that Rettig had and he doesn't have the management experience that other recent commissioners brought to the job.
Trump has repeatedly complained about being audited by the IRS, and the status of those cases isn't publicly known. Unlike other recent presidents, Trump hasn't voluntarily disclosed his tax returns. Many years of his tax records have become public both through leaks and through a request from the congressional Ways and Means Committee that Trump tried to stop but that courts ultimately allowed.
Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 04, 2024 20:35 ET (01:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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