President Donald Trump has eliminated former U.S. Rep. Billy Lengthy as IRS commissioner lower than two months after his affirmation, a White Home official mentioned Friday.
The official, who was not licensed to talk publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity, didn’t give a purpose for the dismissal. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will function appearing commissioner, the official mentioned.
The Senate confirmed Lengthy on a 53-44 vote regardless of Democrats’ considerations in regards to the Republican’s previous work for a agency that pitched a fraud-ridden coronavirus pandemic-era tax break and about marketing campaign contributions he acquired after Trump nominated him.
Associated | Republican who as soon as tried to abolish the IRS will now run it—into the bottom
Earlier than Lengthy’s affirmation, the IRS shuffled by 4 appearing leaders, together with one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Division of Homeland Safety to share immigrants’ tax information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and one other whose appointment led to a battle between Musk and Bessent.
Donald Trump speaks with Billy Lengthy after giving his State of the Union tackle in Feb. 2019.
Whereas in Congress, the place he served from 2011 to 2023, Lengthy sponsored laws to do away with the IRS. A former auctioneer, Lengthy has no background in tax administration.
After leaving Congress to mount an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Lengthy labored with a agency that distributed the pandemic-era worker retention tax credit score. That tax credit score program was ultimately shut down after then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel decided that it was fraudulent.
Democrats referred to as for a prison investigation into Lengthy’s connections to different alleged tax credit score loopholes. The lawmakers allege that companies related to Lengthy duped traders into spending hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to buy pretend tax credit.
