Former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), was invited to attend Trump’s inauguration as the guest of a financial services CEO who said Long promised him benefits for his company, according to a recording obtained by the Lever.
The executive also stated that Long planned to give a top government job to a campaign donor at an embattled financial firm. Companies peddling tax schemes “don’t have to worry” about regulatory crackdowns under Long’s oversight, added the executive.
In a corporate Zoom recording provided to the Lever by Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) office, Terry Kennedy, CEO of financial services company Appreciation Financial, noted he helped Long attend Trump’s inauguration.
“I call up one of my friends and I said, ‘Hey, the IRS Commissioner Billy Long, the new one coming in that we’re all excited about. . . Is Billy coming to the inauguration?’” Kennedy said. “And. . . my friend says, ‘Well, he doesn’t have a ticket. He’s not because he’s not confirmed yet.’ I said, ‘Well, make him my guest.’”
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Kennedy went on to note that he and Long “had dinner one night” during the inauguration and that he “spent a few nights with [Long].”
During that same call, Kennedy addressed Employee Retention Tax Credits (ERC), a pandemic-era program that the IRS says has been the target of the agency’s “civil and criminal investigations of potential fraud and abuse.” Kennedy asserted that companies would no longer have to worry about such IRS scrutiny because Long sold such products himself.
“He actually pushed ERC; is that not a blessing?” said Kennedy. “We could be worried about promoter audits now. We could be worried about anything with the old administration. But Billy actually is now taking over, and we don’t have to worry about that stuff.”
Promoter audits are IRS investigations looking into potential “abusive tax promotions” and other matters. The IRS has been specifically targeting companies promoting ERC tax schemes.
Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
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The April 15 Zoom recording is from a monthly “Huddle Up” meeting hosted by Linqqs, an employee benefits management company that donated $50,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee. Kennedy is listed as the manager of Linqqs on the Nevada state government’s website.
According to Kennedy, Long promised to give him a “private letter ruling” — a special IRS determination that helps taxpayers with complex IRS issues avoid potential tax violations, according to the tax agency.
“Billy, please take your sales hat off and put your new IRS commissioner hat on,” Kennedy recounted asking Long in a conversation, seeking advice about his business’s financial arrangement.
Kennedy also highlighted that Long intends to hire Mark Czuchry, an attorney and managing partner at financial advising firm Lifetime Advisors, as legal counsel at the IRS. Czuchry donated $2,900 to Long’s failed Senate campaign efforts after Trump selected him to head the IRS, and other Lifetime Advisors employees donated an additional $7,800 to Long’s coffers.
Lifetime Advisors is among a number of firms named in an April 14 letter from Senate Finance Committee Democrats calling for a criminal investigation into a “scheme to sell investors a fraudulent tax shelter.” Long worked with Lifetime Advisors in 2023 after leaving Congress, where he sold various tax products, including some of the same tax credits that Treasury officials told Senate Democrats “do not exist.”
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The Lever previously reported that employees of Lifetime Advisors and others helped Long pay off $130,000 in personal debt via campaign donations after Trump selected him to head the tax agency in December. Following the Lever’s reporting, three senators launched an investigation into the matter on May 15.
During Long’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Democratic senators pressed Long about his industry donors, plans to weaponize the IRS against his nonprofit enemies, and his pandemic tax schemes.
In his interrogation, Wyden suggested that his staff investigators had found a recording of a tax promoter recounting that Long had promised him a private letter ruling in his new position at the IRS.
Long denied the allegation, “I was in my room for about fifty hours with food poisoning during the inauguration, so I didn’t talk to many people.”
“These taped conversations are so troubling to me,” said Wyden. “What’s at issue is peddling fake tax credits, scamming small businesses, this questionable array of campaign contributions. . . the extent to which you tried to avoid answering these questions suggests to me someone who’s been up to their eyeballs in this sort of questionable behavior.”
Reader question: My spouse has little interest in our financial position. As we age, this concerns me. I try to share some basic information (income, spending, account balances, debt, and so on) each month but rarely get a response. I think graphs or charts might be of more interest to her than a bunch of numbers. What recommendations would you have for illustrating our financial position so that I am not the only person aware of how we are situated? Thanks!
Answer: Your situation is pretty common. Most couples I know develop a division of labor over time, where one person is in charge of financial matters and the other person is less involved. That’s definitely the case for my husband and me. He’s in charge of paying all the monthly bills and preparing our tax returns, but the financial planning and investment decisions are up to me. This type of arrangement might work well for a long time, but can become less sustainable with age, particularly if the “finance person” in the relationship dies or develops a major health issue.
Online tools and mind maps
Illustrating your financial situation with charts and graphs is a great idea that might help your spouse become a little more involved. Morningstar’s Portfolio X-Ray tool includes a variety of images that help illustrate your financial situation. Websites for most major brokerage firms also include some visual tools. Schwab, for example, offers a Portfolio Checkup and a bar graph illustrating your account’s monthly income from dividends and interest income. Vanguard has a Portfolio Watch tool and a variety of performance illustrations, tools, and calculators.
A mind map, which we used with clients when I worked for a financial advisory firm, can be another way to picture your entire financial situation on one page. There are various softwaretemplates for drawing a mind map, or you can simply sketch it out with a large sheet of paper and a pencil. Start with your names at the center of the page. Then draw spokes connecting to various categories, such as names of other family members; investment accounts; real estate and other assets, insurance policies, estate plans, key goals and values, and contact information for accountants, estate planners, and other professionals. It can be helpful to go through the mind map together and make any updates needed at least once a year.
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Other ways to communicate about money
A few other ideas—though not related to charts and graphs—might also be useful.
I like the idea of putting together a net worth statement that itemizes cash, taxable accounts, real estate, retirement accounts, and debt for each member of the couple as well as items owned jointly. It’s a good idea to update this document at least once a year and discuss it as a couple. If you set up the document as a spreadsheet, you can include columns with additional information such as account numbers, what each account is used for, which accounts are subject to required minimum distributions, or tax issues like potential capital gains.
Many couples also put together a binder (sometimes humorously called a “Doomsday Book”) that contains information about where to find important paperwork, insurance policies, how bills are paid, what each account is for, steps the surviving spouse will need to take, final wishes, and any other critical information.
A well-qualified financial adviser can bridge the information gap
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Finally, you could consider working with a good financial adviser, who can help involve your spouse in financial matters while you’re still living and step in to fully manage investments and personal finance decisions if you pass away before your spouse. Make sure the adviser holds the Certified Financial Planner designation and charges fees that are reasonable. Although a 1% fee is still the industry standard for accounts of $1 million or less, it’s possible to find advisers who charge significantly less, including a few who price their services based on hours worked instead of a percentage of assets under management.
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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.
Amy C. Arnott, CFA, is a portfolio strategist for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast.
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What If This Turns Out to Be a Terrible Time to Retire?
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If you have ever taken out a mortgage, you’ll know there are a lot of requirements to meet. You may need to put down a certain amount and have a debt-to-income ratio below a certain threshold. You may also run into limits on how much you can borrow or what sources of income the lender will count.
These rules do not apply to all mortgages — just to conforming mortgages, which is what the majority of borrowers take out. However, mortgage lenders are increasingly offering what are known as nonconforming loans, or mortgages that do not “comply with every one of the strict standards put in place after the housing crisis,” said The Wall Street Journal. While “still a small portion,” the “share of mortgages using alternative lending practices” has “doubled in size over the past three years.”
What are nonconforming loans?
A nonconforming mortgage is a “type of home loan that doesn’t meet some or all of the guidelines that make them eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Bankrate. These are the government-sponsored entities that “support much of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S.,” meaning they often purchase resold mortgages.
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “federal rules that limit the purchase of loans deemed relatively risk-free,” said Investopedia. Loans that meet these guidelines are conforming loans; loans that do not are nonconforming. To be a conforming loan, a mortgage must fall under a certain loan amount, and the borrower must meet specific criteria when it comes to their credit score, debt-to-income ratio and loan-to-value ratio.
Effectively, any home loan that does not align with these stipulations is considered nonconforming. Examples include jumbo loans, government-backed loans, bridge loans and interest-only loans.
Why do people get them?
There are a wide range of reasons people may opt for a nonconforming mortgage. For one, “you may have no choice but to choose a nonconforming jumbo loan if you want to buy an expensive property,” said Rocket Mortgage. These loans can also provide more flexibility when it comes to the type of property you purchase, your credit score and your down payment amount.
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Nonconforming loans additionally “offer an opportunity for home buyers who might not otherwise qualify for traditional loans because they are self-employed or hold their wealth in assets such as real estate,” said the Journal.
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What are the drawbacks?
For starters, there are fewer lenders offering them “since they pose a higher risk to the bank or mortgage lender,” said Yahoo Finance. That said, availability can vary depending on the specific type, as “some nonconforming loans (like FHA mortgages) are common, while others (like USDA loans) can be harder to find.”
Nonconforming loans also “generally carry a higher interest rate for the borrower,” said the Journal, given the increased risk to the lender. Still, this can vary by loan type. For instance, “FHA, VA and USDA loans usually have lower interest rates,” while “less common nonconforming loans, such as bridge loans, often have higher interest rates,” said Yahoo Finance. There is also the possibility that a nonconforming loan “could have an unusual repayment schedule or other features that make it harder to repay,” said Bankrate.
