{"id":16626,"date":"2025-06-13T07:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T07:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=16626"},"modified":"2025-06-13T07:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T07:04:14","slug":"billy-long-confirmed-as-irs-commissioner-amid-sweeping-agency-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=16626","title":{"rendered":"Billy Long confirmed as IRS Commissioner amid sweeping agency cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., nominee to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. <\/p>\n

Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Senate on Thursday confirmed Billy Long as the next IRS Commissioner, which could mark a shift for taxpayers amid sweeping agency cuts.<\/p>\n

Picked by President Donald Trump, the former Missouri Congressman’s nomination received mixed support from Washington and the tax community.\u00a0But Senate Republicans confirmed Long via a party-line vote.<\/p>\n

During the confirmation process, Long faced Democratic scrutiny over Trump loyalties and ties to dubious tax credits, among other questions, which he addressed during a May Senate Finance Committee\u00a0hearing and written testimony<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More from Personal Finance: <\/strong>
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When asked about Trump’s power over the agency during the May Senate hearing, Long said: “The IRS will not, should not be politicized on my watch.”<\/p>\n

In written testimony<\/a>, Long said he would “follow the law” when asked for specifics about how he would respond to political favor requests from Trump.<\/p>\n

“The confirmation process was pretty controversial,” said Carl Tobias, law professor at University of Richmond’s School of Law.<\/p>\n

But it’s currently unclear what Long as IRS Commissioner will mean for taxpayers, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>IRS cuts will have ‘significant impacts’<\/h2>\n
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Long’s confirmation comes amid widespread IRS cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n

The hiring freeze, deferred resignation programs and reductions in force “will have significant impacts” on IRS operations<\/a>, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, said in a June 6 report.<\/p>\n

A separate TIGTA report from May found the agency had lost nearly one-third of its so-called revenue agents, who conduct audits, as of March 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a>Closing the ‘tax gap’<\/h2>\n
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The “tax gap” \u2014 federal levies incurred but not paid voluntarily on time \u2014 was estimated at $696 billion<\/a> for tax year 2022, according to the latest IRS data.<\/p>\n

When asked about the tax gap, Long answered in written testimony<\/a>: “My goal is to modernize and streamline the IRS, so we are collecting the maximum amount owed each year.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request<\/a> calls for a 37% reduction in IRS spending, including staffing and technology cuts. These reductions could impact revenue collections<\/a>, according to a Budget Lab at Yale analysis.<\/p>\n

In a May House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “collections” were among his IRS priorities. He said “smarter IT” and the “AI boom” could help meet revenue goals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2022, Congress approved nearly\u00a0$80 billion in IRS funding, with more than half earmarked for enforcement of corporate and high-net-worth tax dodgers. That funding has since been targeted by Republicans.<\/p>\n

As the agency faces cuts, it could also soon see more administrative work once Republicans enact sweeping tax changes via Trump’s big beautiful spending bill.<\/p>\n

For example, one provision would require precertification of each qualifying child for filers\u00a0claiming the earned income tax credit. This could be challenging amid staffing cuts, experts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., nominee to be commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images The Senate on Thursday confirmed Billy Long as the next IRS Commissioner, which could mark a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[3125,6323,3342,4802,139,627,1707,5366],"class_list":{"0":"post-16626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance-news","8":"tag-agency","9":"tag-billy","10":"tag-commissioner","11":"tag-confirmed","12":"tag-cuts","13":"tag-irs","14":"tag-long","15":"tag-sweeping"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}