This profile originally appeared on No Corporate Cabinet, where Revolving Door Project helps to track the corporate insiders and top executives who Trump has picked to run the government, at the expense of working families.
IRS Commissioner Nominee: Tax the Poor to Pay the Rich
Billy Long is a former Missouri Congressman and advisor with financial consulting firms. As a Congressman, Long was a reliable vote for any piece of legislation that would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans or hamstring the IRS’ ability to function. He also took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the biggest tax-avoiding corporations. This is a concerning record for Trump’s pick for IRS Commissioner, as a robust IRS is an integral part in ensuring that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
After his time in Congress, Long became a “Certified Tax and Business Advisor,” a title gained through a paid 3-day training program rather than any accreditation as a tax professional or accountant. With this title, Long worked with Lifetime Advisors and Commerce Terrace Consulting to promote the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), a pandemic-era tax credit that was so riddled with fraud that the IRS paused the benefit.
Cutting Taxes For The Wealthy
Long voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s landmark legislation of 2017 that saw massive benefits for the wealthy and corporations, while low paid workers were left out.
Long co-sponsored numerous iterations of bills to repeal the estate tax, pejoratively called the ‘death tax.’ Contrary to talking points of the wealthy, the estate tax only applies to an extremely small number of households—those valued at $5.49 million or $10.98 million for couples. The estate tax has been called the “most effective tax policy” in mitigating wealth concentration perpetuated by inheritances.
Long co-sponsored four iterations of the FairTax Act, a bill that would have abolished the IRS, instituted a 30% flat tax on all goods and services, eliminated tax credits that help millions of working families, and abolished the estate tax. According to the Tax Policy Center, the FairTax Act would have created a net increase in taxes for the middle class and a “sizable” cut for wealthy households. Research from the Brookings Institute showed the FairTax Act would have increased the deficit by at least $10 trillion over a decade.
Long co-sponsored the Tax Code Termination Act to replace the tax code with a “low rate” for everyone. Much like the flat tax of the FairTax Act, this would cause low and middle income people to pay a larger share of their income than the wealthy.
Restricting The IRS’ Ability To Help Taxpayers
In 2016, Long voted for the OWES Act, which prohibited expenditure of user fees collected by the IRS. At the time of Longs’ vote, user fees accounted for $462 million of the IRS budget, $16.24 million of which went to fund IRS tax enforcement and $55 million went to fund taxpayer services.
In 2014, Long voted for the Cromnibus spending bill, celebrating its $345.6 million in cuts to the IRS. At the time, the IRS was already subjected to $1 billion in budget cuts and a reduction of 13,000 employees since 2010. As a result, the IRS’ ability to provide customer service was undermined and wait times for IRS hotlines increased to an average of 52 minutes.
In 2011, Long co-sponsored the Freedom to File Protection Act, which would have prohibited the IRS from developing and implementing its Direct File program. Direct File was rolled out to 40,000 filers in 2024 with widespread praise, saving taxpayers $5.6 million despite its limited availability. Direct File is slated to expand to 30 million taxpayers in 2025, but 29 House Republicans have already urged the administration to scrap the program.
Campaign Contributions From Tax-Dodging Companies
As IRS Commissioner, Long would face a massive conflict of interest given his ties to large corporations that have a history of tax avoidance. In 2024, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy issued a report on corporate tax avoidance since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, finding 55 profitable corporations with effective tax rates under 5%. Long received campaign donations from 17 of them, the top donors being:
- T-Mobile with a -0.4% effective tax rate on $17.9 billion in profits; T-Mobile donated $37,500 to Long’s campaign.
- AT&T with an effective tax rate of 2.6% on $96.3 billion in profits; AT&T donated $72,500 to Long’s campaign.
- Ameren Corporation with a 0% effective tax rate on $5.5 billion in profits; Ameren donated $47,000 to Long’s campaign.