Billy Long out as IRS commissioner after just 2 months

Washington — Billy Long, the commissioner of the IRS, is leaving his post after just two months on the job.

President Trump will nominate Long to serve as ambassador to Iceland, the outgoing IRS commissioner said in a statement confirming the news, which was first reported by The New York Times.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the IRS temporarily, a White House official told CBS News.

"I am thrilled to answer his call to service and deeply committed to advancing his bold agenda," Long said in his statement. "Exciting times ahead!"

In his last mass email to the IRS's workforce on Thursday, Long told agency employees they could leave 70 minutes early on Friday, two staffers told CBS News. He's offered early dismissals at the end of the week on several occasions, one employee said.

"It's Almost FriYay," the email's subject line read, according to the staffers.

Long was confirmed by the Senate in mid-June and took over the IRS after some tumult for the tax collection agency's leadership. The IRS has had several interim commissioners since Mr. Trump's return to office in January, including one who lasted for just 48 hours. The Trump administration has aimed to dramatically trim the agency's workforce.

A former auctioneer and Missouri Republican congressman, Long was chosen to take over the IRS late last year after previously pushing to repeal much of the tax code during his time in the House. Long isn't an accountant by trade, but Mr. Trump touted his time as a tax adviser. After retiring from Congress in 2023, Long advised businesses on the Employee Retention Tax Credit, drawing criticism from Democrats who noted the credit's high rate of fraud.

The IRS has been a focus of the Trump administration's government-wide staff cuts. The agency drew up plans earlier this year to cut its 102,000-person workforce by as much as 40% through a combination of layoffs and voluntary resignations, according to an internal memo obtained by CBS News in April. The cuts were set to begin after April 15, which is the deadline for most Americans to file their taxes.

As of May, some 25,000 staffers had left the IRS, a 25% decrease from February levels, according to a report by the IRS's internal watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Around 26% of the IRS's revenue agents — the staff who conduct audits — had left the agency by May, the report found.

Meanwhile, staff from the Department of Government Efficiency — a cost-cutting team once led by billionaire Elon Musk — sought access to the IRS's tax data system, sparking a lawsuit.

Former IRS acting head Melanie Krause left the agency in April over a plan to share tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help identify undocumented immigrants. She was replaced by Gary Shapley, a longtime IRS agent who became well-known for speaking about alleged political influence in the Hunter Biden tax investigation. But Shapley was ousted after just two days following a dispute between Musk and Bessent.

Bessent complained to Mr. Trump that Shapley had been installed at the urging of Musk and sought the president's approval to undo the decision, multiple sources told CBS News at the time.