The ousting of the newly confirmed IRS leader last week has cast a shadow over the agency again.
Billy Long spent just over 50 days leading an IRS battered by workforce cuts and disputes among top leaders. Long—a Missouri Republican lawmaker who previously backed abolishing the IRS and was an unlikely choice to lead the agency—had brought cautious optimism to IRS workers looking for consistency after months of turmoil.
“I think we were just starting to feel a little calmer about the seas, and now we don’t know what seas are in front of us,” said David Carrone, an IRS revenue agent and chapter president for the Arkansas and Louisiana region of the National Treasury Employees Union.
Now, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is taking over the role, the seventh person this year to have the job nobody in Washington seems to want. The constant leadership changes likely will complicate filing season preparations and make it harder for the IRS to collect money to fund the federal government, former IRS officials said.
The revolving door of commissioners “really doesn’t benefit an administration if it wants to make big changes at an agency rather than act as a caretaker,” said Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union.
The Trump administration has promised to modernize IRS technology within two years, even with fewer workers and a smaller budget. At the same time, President Donald Trump wants the IRS to help with his massive immigrant deportation push, using taxpayer data and workers in the IRS criminal division to help track down people who were thought to be in the country illegally.
Long’s Leadership
In his first few weeks, Long tried to put his stamp on the office by getting to know workers and putting two high-level leaders on administrative leave for unspecified, alleged conduct against Republicans.
The contentious data-sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security—which previously resulted in multiple IRS senior leaders stepping down—also resurfaced.
The IRS started sharing tax data with DHS last week to aid the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, according to two people familiar with the matter.
But the IRS could only verify a small percentage of the data DHS wanted, the people said. The IRS and DHS entered into the controversial data-sharing agreement in April, alarming current and former IRS officials.
There were other hiccups during Long’s short tenure, too.
In his first public appearance, Long had to walk back a blunder about when tax filing season would start.
“I talked with one of our top guys in the IRS last week while I was down in the Atlanta visit and I said, ‘What’s our start date?’” Long said during the National Association of Enrolled Agents Tax Summit on July 28 . “He said ‘The Presidents Day, historically is our start day.’”
Shortly after the announcement of his departure, Long posted on social media that tax filing season would start on time, around Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
He also announced that the Biden-era free filing tool, Direct File was gone. Bessent previously said Direct File would be offered until the end of filing season, which with extensions is Oct. 15.
“You’ve heard of Direct File,” Long said during his July 28 appearance at NAEA. “That’s gone. Big beautiful Billy wiped that out.”
Quick with a joke, Long’s attitude with staff was a stark contrast to the cuts and changes of the previous months. He started shortened Fridays—dubbed “FriYay”-—and the promise of 10-minute meetings with anyone who wanted to talk. He also didn’t like talking about any future reductions in force, according to multiple IRS employees.
“He made it clear he wanted to be engaged with the employees and wanted to be an employee person,” Carrone said. “We don’t usually hear that.”
‘A Lot of Work to Be Done’
Lacking a confirmed commissioner will likely slow IRS preparations for tax filing season and put employees even further on edge, said John Koskinen, IRS commissioner during the Obama administration.
“People will try not to make any decisions if they don’t have to,” Koskinen said. “And of course in preparing for filing season, there’s a lot of work to be done.”
The IRS typically starts hiring now for filing season. The agency said in its 2026 budget request that it needed to hire 11,000 customer service workers to maintain its phone lines and taxpayer services.
Thousands of seasonal customer service jobs are posted on the federal career website. The IRS recently had posted 4,500 nonseasonal customer service jobs but those were removed within days of being open.
The Trump administration has already shrunk the 100,000-person workforce by about a quarter. About two-thirds of the IRS senior leadership positions are either vacant or have someone serving in an acting capacity. Amid all the changes, IRS workers want some consistency, Carrone said.
“Different commissioners bring different things to the agency to try to obtain as much voluntary compliance as possible,” said Larry Gibbs, IRS commissioner during the Reagan administration. “It’s a top-down agency. Those programs are important.”
The leadership changes and funding cuts won’t help the IRS solve the tax gap, or the difference between the amount of money owed and collected, now at historic levels, said Kimberly Clausing, a UCLA Law professor who served in Treasury during the Biden administration.
Bessent is one of many in the Trump administration serving multiple roles and has a full plate—especially with Trump’s aggressive tariff agenda and goal to reduce government spending.
But Bessent, or another string of acting commissioners, may lead the IRS for the foreseeable future because Congress will be wary of going through another confirmation process if lawmakers think that person will be replaced, Sepp said. It took Long about half a year to get confirmed.
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