ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Trump administration is removing the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. His name is Billy Long. He was once a member of Congress from Missouri, and he'd been IRS commissioner for under two months. The Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will serve as acting commissioner. Jacob Bogage is White House economic correspondent at The Washington Post. Thanks for joining us.
JACOB BOGAGE: Thanks for having me.
SHAPIRO: Do you know why the IRS commissioner is being removed so quickly?
BOGAGE: He was not a good fit for this role for a number of reasons. And then his administration in the role really rankled Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, from what we know. He's a six-term member of Congress, Billy Long, from Missouri, but he had no tax experience to speak of whatsoever. The nearest thing he had was his vocation was an auctioneer. That was the nearest thing he had to tax experience.
When he entered the IRS, he wasn't really (inaudible) on how to do this job. And then two decisions or two statements that he made recently really got under the skin of the administration. One, he said he would start tax season about a month later than it usually does - usually begins. That is a major problem for millions of tax filers who file early to get their refunds early.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
BOGAGE: And then, two, he said he was killing off this free government-backed tax-filing program. That's likely going away anyway under the Trump administration. Most Republicans don't like it. But the administration didn't feel that that was Billy Long's call to make.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
BOGAGE: So he's off to an ambassadorship somewhere. We don't quite know where yet.
SHAPIRO: And this is a key moment for the IRS. The big domestic policy bill that Congress just passed changed a lot of tax law. So what is the task facing this place that has had so much turnover in just the last six months?
BOGAGE: There are a lot of tasks on the IRS in normal times, and these are not normal times. You have President Trump's and Republicans' massive new tax law that's changing, you know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. I mean, these things haven't been done before. And so the IRS has to implement those from scratch.
SHAPIRO: And they've lost about 25,000 employees since President Trump took office.
BOGAGE: You are right on top of it, Ari.
SHAPIRO: I mean, are the concerns about their ability to implement this?
BOGAGE: Yes. Yes, they've lost a ton of employees, a ton of expertise. They're being asked to collaborate with the Department of Homeland Security to find suspected illegal immigrants. They - there are - you know, they have customer service obligations, and their customer service staff is getting decimated. I mean, there are so many demands on this agency. It's - even in the best of times, it'd be difficult for them to accomplish them all.
SHAPIRO: That is Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post. Thank you for joining us.
BOGAGE: Thanks for having me, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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