According to Accounting Today, IRS Commissioner Billy Long on Jul. 28 discussed his plans for the tax agency and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) during his first public talk in his new role. Long spoke at the National Association of Enrolled Agents' 2025 Tax Summit.
Long. who is the 51st IRS commissioner, was confirmed in June amid a tumultuous period that saw large layoffs at the agency as well as a series of acting commissioners after ex-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel left. President Donald Trump had named Long as his pick for the IRS position prior to taking office, which led Werfel to resign on Inauguration Day.
Long said that this past tax season went well in spite of expectations that there would be turmoil prior to his confirmation and swearing in ceremony that took awhile to happen. "We've got a lot of great people that work there," he noted.
He is a former congressman and auctioneer. He intends to apply his skills to the IRS event though he does not have a tax background. He grew up in Springfield, Missouri, and attended a real estate school, according to Accounting Today. When Long graduated, interest rates were so high that he found it was hard to sell houses. He then signed up for the Missouri Auction School.
He learned how to auction real estate. Long had a 32-year career as a real estate broker, and 31 as an auctioneer. "I come to the IRS with a diversified background. Then I ran for office because I thought it was important for somebody that's actually signed the front of a check to go to Congress, not a career politician. I said, I'll go six terms, go home, and that's what I did," he noted.
Long also said that he has been consulting with Treasury Department officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender and their staff about the bill's implementation. He added that he has been having talks with Faulkender every week about the OBBBA's implementation and he expects that they are going to get it done,
Long is hoping to makes changes to the tax agency's culture. "When you get nominated for a position like this, you don't know what to do, what to ask, what to plan for," he stated. "My plan was to watch old YouTube videos of former IRS commissioners. And after watching a lot of these, I called President Trump one day, and I said, 'I would like for my hearing to be on Feb. 2.' And he said, 'Why is that?' And I said, because it's like Groundhog Day. I've been going back to 1997 with [former Commissioner] Charles Rossotti. Every year, it's the same complaints over and over and over. A lot of it, I think, is that we're not taking advantage of our employee partners."
According to Accounting Today, Long has been holding meetings with those IRS employees one on one. "I thought, how many people have ever stopped and asked the 1,533 employee partners that work in the building where I work at 1111 Constitution, and how many times has someone stopped and said, 'What do you think? How's your life? How are your kids? How's your husband's surgery coming?' I want to know about their lives, but I also want to know what they think."