Yesterday, President-Elect Trump announced that he would nominate former Missouri Congressman Billy Long as IRS Commissioner. This is a nomination that should not happen, and if does occur I hope that the Senate does not “Advise and Consent” to Mr. Long as IRS Commissioner.
Before I get into my reasons, there has been commentary from the left that President-Elect Trump cannot fire FBI Director Wray or the current IRS Commissioner (Danny Werfel) because their terms have not expired. Legally, this is incorrect. Both Wray and Werfel are political appointees in the Executive Branch; the Executive (soon to be Trump) has the absolute constitutional right to fire any and all political appointees within the Executive Branch (the FBI is within the Department of Justice, the IRS is within the Department of the Treasury). Yes, Director Wray has three more years of a ten-year term; however, that doesn’t prevent President Trump on January 20th firing him. It’s even clearer for IRS Commissioner Werfel: Internal Revenue Code section 7803(d) specifically notes that IRS commissioners can be “removed at the will of the President.”
President Trump’s announcement noted, “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. Taxpayers and the wonderful employees of the IRS will love having Billy at the helm.”
According to an article in Tax Notes, Senator Todd Young (R-IN) liked the nomination. Predictably, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) didn’t like it (but I doubt she would like anyone nominated by President Trump). Joe Kristan (who is the principal writer of Eide Bailly’s tax blog) told Tax Notes, “[W]hile it’s not surprising that Trump would want his own commissioner, it is a little surprising that he didn’t find somebody from the business world who would know something about managing a large enterprise, if only to control it better.”
My reason is different. Mr. Long’s tax background is a bit checkered: He worked for what we in the tax professional community call an “ERC Mill.” These were the companies who had continual radio and television advertising saying everyone qualified for the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), and you can get thousands and thousands of dollars from it. An aside: Our firm had five clients approach us about the ERC. Only two qualified: one qualified for one quarter; the other, who was told by an ERC mill that he qualified for $125,000 in credits, qualified for about 15% of that. The ERC mills left a very bad taste with tax professionals. But I digress….
I did a search of the literature and cannot find anything where Mr. Long came out against these mills, or noted the issues with them. It’s possible, of course, that he has; if I see anything that comes out in the coming days where he has noted that he erred in supporting these mills, I will quickly amend this post.
To me, working for one of these mills (which effectively scammed the American taxpayers: you and I) disqualifies Mr. Long from being the IRS Commissioner. There have to be more qualified individuals. Even I’m more qualified than Mr. Long!