Former Springfield politician confirmed to lead IRS after questions about past, experience

Southwest Missouri politician Billy Long has been confirmed to lead the IRS.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Long as the commissioner in a 53-44 vote Thursday, June 12, according to reporting from Politico. This concludes a lengthy process that began in December when President Donald Trump announced Long as his top pick for the role.

Who is Billy Long?

Long is a Springfield native. He owned his own auctioneer business from 1979 to 2011, according to his Congressional biography. Long has also worked as a real estate broker and radio host. As of July 2023, Long has been a Realtor with Murney Associates, according to the Missouri Real Estate Commission.

He has been a longtime supporter of Trump, often emphasizing that he supported the president-elect before others in the Republican Party.

Long served as a representative in Congress from 2011 to 2023. There, he sponsored a total of 46 bills, 13 of which were about health care. He also sponsored a bill that was “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives” that Congress should not pass legislation that would tax or confiscate personal savings accounts.

In 2022, Long ran for Senate and lost to then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt.

In 2013, Long co-sponsored a bill to abolish the IRS.

He went viral in 2019 with his novelty $45 bills with Trump’s face in the middle.

Pointed questions during confirmation hearings

During the confirmation hearings, senators, particularly Democrats, grilled the former congressman on his ties to companies involved with controversial tribal tax credit schemes, donations he received from associates of those companies and his own work with a pandemic-era incentive that sparked thousands of fraudulent claims. Long denied any wrongdoing, according to Missouri Independent reporting.

According to the Missouri Independent, Long’s campaign committee had $130,000 in debt in December, from money he had loaned the campaign himself. A month later, his Senate campaign committee raised $137,000, with much of the money coming from executives at the companies accused of selling fraudulent tax credits. Democrats had called for a criminal investigation of Long’s connections to the tax schemes.

Long said he was in compliance with the Office of Government Ethics regarding his nomination and did not have the perception that the tax credits were invalid. He also noted that he had only referred the credits to a few friends. During his opening statement, Long vowed to make long-needed changes to the IRS if confirmed and assured Republicans he would develop a modernization plan for the agency.

After losing the 2022 Senate race, Long went into business as a “certified tax and business advisor,” according to his profile on X, formerly known as Twitter. A certified tax and business advisor is a title given to those who complete a CTBA course with Excel Empire, a West Palm Beach, Florida, company, according to previous News-Leader reporting.

“Billy brings 32 years of experience running his own businesses in Real Estate and, as one of the premier Auctioneers in the Country,” Trump said in a previous post on his social media platform, Truth Social, according to USA Today reporting. “Since leaving Congress, Billy has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.”

It does not appear that Long is registered as an enrolled agent, which is a federally licensed tax practitioner who can prepare taxes and can represent taxpayers before the IRS, and he is not certified by the Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation or listed in the IRS’s “Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications.”

In 2021, Long attended a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, at Trump’s request. Tickets for the event started at $2,900. U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, who represents southeast Missouri, also attended a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago around the same time.

During his time in Congress, Long ran several fundraising events in Las Vegas and Springfield. In his 2022 campaign for Senate, he raised more than $1.3 million.

While Democrats had raised concerns that Long will allow political interference from the Trump administration, Republicans said Long had assured them he was qualified, according to Politico.

Long will begin as the agency is undergoing major changes amid reductions in workforce and accusations that the Department of Government Efficiency has mishandled sensitive taxpayer information.