Revelations that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service aggressively promoted an often misused pandemic-era tax credit, which is raising new questions about his motives for the position.
Senate Democrats preparing to grill former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri – who Trump named as his nominee to serve as the commissioner of the IRS – have already requested information from Lifetime Advisors, the lawsuit-plagued consulting firm he hopped on board with after leaving Congress in 2023, the New York Times reported.
Republicans in the upper chamber, meanwhile, have said they want more information about Long and the work he did with Lifetime, “a company that solicited clients to claim a pandemic-era tax credit that the I.R.S. said became a magnet for fraud,” the publication added.
That’s because Long has pushed the Employee Retention Tax Credit – a COVID-19-inspired tax credit signed by Trump – that had been riddled with fraud before the IRS temporarily stopped accepting applications “and warned that many claims appeared improper.”
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As one of Lifetime’s network of salespeople, Long, a former auctioneer and ardent poker player, pitched the credit to businesses and nonprofits in his former Missouri congressional district, even regularly wearing a hat that said, “Ask me about E.R.T.C.” – the initials for the credit – as he actively sought clients to take advantage of the government aid.
“Mr. Long’s time promoting the tax credit has raised questions among Democrats and tax experts about how aggressively he would seek to slow the flood of claims if he is confirmed,” the Times reported. "Whether Mr. Long intends to make it easier to claim the credit at the I.R.S. is unclear."
The program was expected to cost the government $55 billion when Congress created it, but after millions of claims flooded the IRS, the cost soared to $230 billion – and some roughly calculated that it could reach $550 billion, according to the Times.
