The post-Long landscape
For comparison's sake, it was around half a year between when President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Long and when the Senate confirmed him on a party-line vote.
That Long flamed out as IRS chief won't come as a huge surprise to a lot of people. A former six-term GOP congressman from Missouri, Long didn't have extensive managerial experience, either in the bureaucracy or with other types of big organizations.
Nor was he an expert in tax administration or law, while basically all of his immediate predecessors checked at least one of those boxes.
Plus, there were definitely missteps in Long's opening weeks. He got ahead of his skis twice just in a single appearance before a conference of enrolled agents in Utah — announcing that he was killing the Direct File portal and that next year's filing season would be delayed.
That raised further questions about Long's ability to lead an agency that still has around 75,000 employees, even with all the recent cuts.
And yet, there's an argument that Long also got an incredibly short leash — particularly given that other rookies in the administration have been given more time to find their sea legs.
WELCOME TO Weekly Tax. More on everything in a bit. And as the old saying goes: What's the matter with Kansas? (At least when it comes to identifying wild animals.)
The first spin of the merry-go-round: Today marks 52 years since what's generally acknowledged as the birth of hip hop, when DJ Kool Herc played at a back-to-school party in the Bronx.
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MORE ON LONG'S SHORT TENURE: Here's one potential explanation — the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the IRS had not been particularly helpful in a recent data request from immigration authorities. (Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has replaced Long as interim IRS chief.)
It wouldn't be the first time this year that a head of the IRS left at least in part because of tensions over the data-sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security — though at the very least, Long put on a positive face about being pushed out at the IRS and subsequently being nominated as ambassador to Iceland.
Either way, it's a tricky time for the IRS to be without a Senate-confirmed leader — and with little idea of how quickly another one can be put into place.
Long quite prominently underscored how much work the IRS and Treasury have to do to implement the tax provisions from the megabill that Trump signed into law in July.
That's largely because of the immediate work needed to flesh out new policies like the deductions for tipped income and overtime pay, something that administration officials are already deep in the weeds on.
But there's plenty more, too. Companies will be looking into just what the rules are for winding down the clean energy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, and the changes that Republicans made to international provisions in the megabill, among other things.
Speaking of: You know all that talk about another round of budget reconciliation for Republicans in the coming months? We'll see about that.
House Republicans are showing a good deal of interest at taking another bite at that apple, but there's a similar amount of skepticism within the Senate GOP, as our Mia McCarthy, Jordain Carney and Cassandra Dumay noted.
LET'S TAKE A STEP BACK: Taxpayer advocates say that data-sharing agreement between the IRS and immigration authorities could end up forcing the government to pay an extensive amount to affected taxpayers.
Current tax law allows people to sue for civil damages if their tax information is wrongly disclosed, and to receive $1,000 or more in damages if the government is found liable.
But how vulnerable is the government to those challenges under the IRS-DHS agreement? The answer to that question largely depends on whether you believe the Trump administration's public comments on the agreement.
The memorandum of understanding between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security allows for confidential taxpayer data to be shared to assist in criminal investigations.
Some taxpayer advocates aren't buying that the sharing will be that limited, particularly after multiple outlets have reported that administration officials wanted the information from seven million-plus taxpayers.
Experts argue that's far more disclosures than could feasibly be needed for criminal inquiries, which can number in the thousands per month — and tens of thousands for a given year.
Using some of those reported figures, Dahlia Mignouna of the Tax Law Center at NYU Law argues that the government could be on the hook for $7 billion or more for improper disclosures.
'The reported data-sharing between the IRS and DHS could put a huge swath of taxpayers at risk, even American citizens or legal permanent residents who have similar names to those DHS requests,' said Mignouna, a senior attorney adviser at the Tax Law Center.
IRS employees could also be liable for the unauthorized disclosure or inspection of confidential data, she added.
A Treasury spokesperson didn't repond to a request for comment on this issue. But the government has stressed in court filings that it will follow the memorandum and won't use taxpayer information to help with civil deportation cases.
This wouldn't be the first time the government potentially has found itself liable under this statute in recent years.
The hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin sued under the same statute after his returns were disclosed by Charles Littlejohn, the contractor who was sentenced to five years in prison after also leaking tax information about Trump and thousands of others.
Griffin eventually settled with the government, receiving an apology for his trouble.
But that case also raises another question: Griffin knew his returns were improperly shared because they ended up in the hands of a news organization.
So how would a taxpayer whose information might be wrongly disclosed to DHS become aware of it?
Some experts acknowledge that only the federal government would truly know how many taxpayers might be affected by such a breach. But plaintiffs also might not need to understand the full scope to start a class action suit that could potentially compel the federal government to identify those who might be eligible to receive damage payments.
Around the World
Bloomberg: 'Poland's New President Challenges Premier With Plan to Cut Taxes.'
Bloomberg, again: 'Romania Holds Interest Rate With Tax Hikes Set to Fuel Inflation.'
Reuters: 'South African tax authorities extend jet fuel lifeline to airports.'
Around the Nation
Boston Globe: 'Massachusetts collected $2 billion more in tax revenue than expected because of millionaires tax.'
WHYY: 'Delaware progressives, Democratic leaders square off over plans to address high tax bills in upcoming session.'
San Jose Spotlight: 'Santa Clara County puts sales tax measure on November ballot.'
Also Worth Your Time
Associated Press: 'College endowment tax is leading to hiring freezes and could mean cuts in financial aid.'
CNBC: 'Trump's 'no tax on tips' raises worker questions: One bartender says it feels 'too good to be true.''
Wall Street Journal: 'The Estate Tax Mistake That Can Cost Families Millions.'
Did you know?
DJ Kool Herc was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
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