Trump dismisses IRS commissioner Billy Long; removed less than two months after Senate affirmation, Scott Bessent to serve as acting head

US Rep Billy Long (Image credit: AP)

US President Donald Trump on Friday dismissed former US Rep Billy Long as IRS commissioner less than two months after his affirmation. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent will serve as acting commissioner within the interim.A White House official who spoke to AP on situation of anonymity, confirmed the elimination, nevertheless, didn’t give a cause for it.Long was confirmed by the Senate in a 53-44 vote regardless of considerations raised by Democrats about his earlier work with a agency concerned in a fraudulent coronavirus pandemic-era tax credit score program, as properly as marketing campaign contributions he acquired following his nomination by Trump.Before Long’s affirmation, the IRS had already cycled by way of 4 acting leaders. These included one who resigned over a controversial deal permitting the IRS to share immigrants’ tax knowledge with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and one other whose appointment triggered a public dispute between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and treasury secretary Bessent, in accordance to AP.During his time in Congress from 2011 to 2023, Long, a former auctioneer with no background in tax administration, sponsored laws geared toward abolishing the IRS altogether. After leaving Congress to run unsuccessfully for the US Senate, Long labored with a agency that distributed the worker retention tax credit score in the course of the pandemic—a program later shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel discovered widespread fraud.Democrats have known as for a felony investigation into Long’s connections to different alleged tax credit score loopholes. Lawmakers declare that corporations linked to Long misled buyers into spending thousands and thousands of {dollars} on faux tax credit.