Key Takeaways
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Article covers breakdown between Billy Long and Treasury Secretary Bessent.
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Bessent visits IRS with Hunter Biden Whistleblowers.
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IRS faces tax season with depleted ranks.
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IRS has responded to ICE data requests.
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Good tax influencers vs. bad ones.
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College football's NIL tax wedge.
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An internal control lesson from Minnesota.
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Hawaiian Shirt Day.
New Tax Law Webinar. Next Tuesday Eide Bailly presents New Tax Legislation: Key Considerations for Your Business. It will cover the "big three" business tax provisions - bonus depreciation, research expense deduction, and interest deductions - as well as the QBI deduction and new accounting method rules for multifamily construction. Set your calendars to August 19, 1:30 Central. Register here.
The Auctioneer and the Treasury Chief: Billy Long’s Quick Fall at the I.R.S. - Andrew Duehren and Maggie Haberman, New York Times. The most comprehensive article yet on the short tenure of the shortest-lived Senate-confirmed IRS commissioner. The article says that Mr. Long quickly got on the wrong side of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who soon orchestrated Long's ouster. From the article:
Over their lunch, Mr. Trump suggested people at the I.R.S. whom Mr. Long should fire, while Mr. Long told the president he wanted to elevate a Treasury staff member brought in as part of the Department of Government Efficiency, Sam Corcos, to become his No. 2. Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s powerful aide, at one point stopped by the meeting.
Soon after the lunch, the working relationship between Mr. Bessent, a multimillionaire former hedge fund manager, and Mr. Long, a former auctioneer without a college degree, began to break down.
Mr. Bessent is now Acting IRS Commissioner. It sounds like that's a role he wants to keep, if not in name:
Mr. Long's record and social media account indicate that he would do whatever President Trump asked, including following Secretary Bessent's orders. The article gives the impression that Mr. Bessent wants the next Commissioner to be a figurehead, just a more competent one.
Scott Bessent’s sudden visit to IRS office — with whistleblowers — sends strong message just days after sixth commish was ousted - Miranda Devine, New York Post:
But the two visitors he brought with him sent an even stronger message: IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler, who testified to Congress last year about the corrupted investigation into Hunter Biden, strode into the building side by side with Bessent.
What it Means to IRS Operations
The IRS faces unprecedented leadership turnover - Vanessa Williamson, Brookings:
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Crucially, many have left in response to the administration’s drive to use tax data to locate and deport millions of immigrants. After the announcement of a memorandum of understanding between the IRS and ICE, the acting commissioner and the chief privacy, financial, and risk officers all resigned. Around the same time, as many as 50 senior IT executives at the agency were also put on leave. Most recently, the acting chief counsel, Andrew De Mello, was pushed out over his objections to the ICE data sharing. That De Mello raised strenuous objections to the plan is particularly notable, given that he had been seen as a Trump ally. De Mello was promoted to acting chief counsel after the previous acting counsel objected to agreements proposing unprecedented data-sharing. Long’s departure came as the White House continued to pressure the agency to turn over taxpayer data.
IRS Has Answered Immigration Agency’s Request for Tax Data - Benjamin Valdez, Tax Notes ($):
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The MOU has drawn criticism from Democrats and privacy activists for its potential to wrongfully disclose the information of millions of immigrants. In Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, several nonprofits are arguing that the disclosures under the MOU could ensnare taxpayers who haven’t broken the law.
Appeals Memos No Longer Secret
IRS Appeals Moves Toward Greater Transparency by Sharing Appeals Case Memoranda With Taxpayers - Erin Collins, NTA Blog:
In response to years of advocacy and mounting concern, Appeals recently issued internal guidance reminding employees that they should share ACMs with taxpayers upon an informal request. This clarification is a meaningful step toward transparency and a welcome development for taxpayer rights.
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The ACM is more than a routine administrative document. It is the written analysis prepared by an Appeals Officer detailing the facts, legal conclusions, and rationale behind their proposed resolution for review by the manager. No settlements can become final without management review. Historically, Appeals shares the ACM with the originating IRS examination division to explain how the issues were resolved, which helps inform future enforcement actions. However, when Appeals denies access to this memo, taxpayers may be left without a clear understanding of why their appeal was decided a certain way or what was shared with the IRS Compliance team.
Related: Eide Bailly IRS Dispute Resolution and Collections Services.
Doing the Jobs the IRS Won't Do
Tax Influencers Face Off Over Scams and Tips, While IRS Looks On - Cole Reynolds, Bloomberg ($):
“This is what we call ‘making [stuff] up,’” DiLucci interjects, as a man claims taxpayers can write off haircuts as a business expense. She spends the rest of the minute-long video lobbing tax law at the YouTuber.
The IRS lists “bad social media advice” as among taxpayers’ biggest threats this year, but it’s a problem the agency has struggled to counter. A handful of private CPAs like DiLucci have taken up that fight in the last few years, some getting hundreds of thousands of followers and driving clients to their in-person businesses.
College Football's NIL Flying Tax Wedge
Breaking Down The Top 20 College Football Stars’ 2025 NIL Tax Bills - Nathan Goldman, Forbes:
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Below is a table that outlines On3’s top 20 highest college football NIL valuations for 2025. On3 provides the data on the name, team, position, and NIL valuation. Using this NIL valuation, one can calculate the federal income tax, state income tax, and total tax owed. Notably, in this table NIL valuations are treated as taxable income, meaning they do not factor in any possible deductions for business expenses or personal deductions (for example, the standard or itemized deduction). The calculations treat all athletes as single taxpayers with no dependents. Finally, the calculated taxes owed pertain only to income taxes, excluding property, sales, and jock taxes.
You can click on the article to read the table. A "tax wedge" is the difference between what an employer pays and what the employee takes home after tax. Football banned the Flying Wedge over a century ago, but the Tax Wedge never goes away.
Tariff Weekend Reading
Legal Jeopardy Looms Over Trump's Trade Negotiation Plans - Jeffrey Bialos, Law360 Tax Authority ($):
In the most procedurally advanced case, V.O.S. Selections Inc. v. U.S., the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in May that the president lacked the authority to impose both sets of tariffs under IEEPA — effectively finding, among other things, that the statute did not authorize the wholesale throwing out of the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule, or HTS, established by Congress.
Trump Pharma Tariffs Would Raise Drug Prices for Americans - Alex Durante, The Tax Foundation. "President Trump has recently floated the idea of imposing tariffs of up to 250 percent on pharmaceuticals, with the intention of shifting pharmaceutical production to the US. These tariffs would not only drive drug prices higher but could also lead to shortages and reduce long-run drug innovation."
The Trouble With Trump’s Deal With Nvidia, and AMD: It’s An Export Tax - Howard Gleckman, TaxVox. "Two of the nation’s most prominent chipmakers have agreed to pay the US government 15 percent of their revenues from the sale of artificial intelligence chips to China. In effect, the firms will be paying an export tax, though neither they nor the administration describes it this way. One reason why: Such a levy appears to be unconstitutional."
Blogs and Bits
IRS needs a comprehensive adoption tax credit outreach plan - Kay Bell, Don't Mess With Taxes. "The tax credit of up to $17,280 for each adoptee remains the same in 2025, but now up to $5,000 in qualifying adoption expenses are refundable."
IRS Addresses Withholding Issues for Uncashed Retirement Plan Distribution Checks - Parker Tax Pro Library. "The IRS ruled that no adjustment or refund was available to an employer under Code Sec. 6413 and Code Sec. 6414 for the amounts withheld and remitted with respect to a retirement plan distribution check that was never cashed by the plan member and was cancelled by the employer before sending a replacement check. The IRS also held that if the amount of the individual's accrued benefit at the time of the issuance of the replacement check by the employer was less than or equal to the amount of the uncashed check, then no federal income tax withholding obligations apply with respect to replacement check."
Tax News & Views International Weekly: The Big Tariff Revenue Haul - Alex Parker, Eide Bailly. "As a new round of tariffs take effect, a D.C.-based think tank is predicting that the tariffs could bring in a large amount of money."
Internal Controls Aren't Just For Big Companies
Plymouth man indicted for embezzling more than one million dollars - IRS (Defendant name omitted, emphasis added):
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According to the indictment, Defendant worked for... a family-run commercial real estate business located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Defendant worked for the company from 2010 until 2024, when his embezzlement was discovered.
Defendant and was trusted with authority to use company funds to pay vendors, contractors, and other third parties. Defendant abused his position of trust to embezzle from the company. He improperly charged more than $800,000 on the company credit card, directing the payments to his own payment-processing accounts. He hid the fact that these payments were to his own accounts by writing false statements in the transaction memo lines, misrepresenting that the transactions were business-related and with third parties, when, in fact, they were transfers to Defendant.
Defendant also fraudulently obtained “reimbursement” checks from the company for business expenses he claimed he had paid personally, when, in fact, he had not. He used fake invoices, fake emails, and other lies to induce company personnel to issue the unwarranted reimbursement checks.
The moral? It's an old one. Even small companies need strong controls to prevent fraud. Embezzlement can't hide forever, but it can sure be expensive in the meantime.
Related: Eide Bailly Fraud Prevention and Detection Services.
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