There’s plenty that new IRS Commissioner Billy Long can do to make the tax system easier for people to manage.

O ne of the welcome elements of the second Trump administration is the emphasis on improving basic quality-of-life issues for average Americans. These things aren’t going to change anyone’s lives, but they get rid of little annoyances – low water pressure in toilets and showerheads, gas cans that don’t work, the stop/start feature on cars, TSA shoe-removal policies, etc. Now that IRS Commissioner Billy Long is in the saddle, it’s time for the IRS to join in the fun. Congress will need a few projects, too, now that the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act is law.

Long is off to a good start by ending the illegal and unauthorized “Direct File” program, in which the IRS decided it was a good idea to be both the tax preparer and the tax collector for millions of Americans (anyone who doesn’t see the conflict of interest should envision a wolf being put in charge of the henhouse). He can build on this by making it easier for taxpayers and tax pros to access more information securely on their IRS account profiles, and to make the private sector “Free File” program a viable alternative for many more taxpayers.

While he’s at it, Long should establish a volunteer kitchen cabinet of tax professionals to give ideas on new IRS safe harbors and notices, or updating those that need it. A good example from dozens I could give include the amount of interest or dividends that a taxpayer can earn before being required to itemize them on a Form 1040, Schedule B. For years, the figure was $400. In 2002, the George W. Bush IRS caught it up to inflation, with a new threshold of $1,500. It needs to be inflation-adjusted again to $2,600 today, and indexed going forward. Fix a bunch of these, and tax season is a lot easier. Examples include restoring the “de minimus” business-expense deduction (which the IRS eliminated entirely under in the Obama years) and increasing the foreign tax credit simplified threshold (which is now just $300).

Speaking of inflation adjustment, the IRS should take the lead on letting taxpayers index the basis of their assets to inflation when calculating a capital gain or loss. This could be done all at once, or they could do it in pieces. An example of how to do the latter is to let brokerage firms (which have been reporting nominal basis since 2011) calculate inflation-adjusted basis, letting taxpayers choose the one they want. Similarly, people selling their homes could be given the choice to inflation-adjust their initial purchase-cost basis, using municipal property records as the nominal-basis reporting receipt. It would be a great way for people to avoid taxes merely on Joe Biden’s inflation.

Congress needs to get in on the act, too. One thing that’s been in the news lately is updating the dollar amount that people can exclude from capital gain sales on their home. It’s been fixed at $250,000 since 1998 (double that for married couples), but the real value has halved since then. Increasing this amount to match the rate of inflation would mean $500,000 of gain can be excluded on a primary home sale (double if you’re married).

This idea actually would not cost the Treasury much at all in lost tax revenue, since most of these homes would never be sold. Smart financial planning tells homeowners to sit on their properties until death, at which time their heirs would be able to sell the houses tax-free thanks to “step up in basis” rules. What increasing the exclusion would do is get millions of Boomer houses (which have tremendously increased in value and inflation) onto the market, making them available for Millennial families looking to buy their forever homes. Representative Mike Kelly (R., Penn.) has introduced HR 1321, the “More Homes on the Market Act” to make this happen.

Another commonsense congressional tax idea that should not deprive the Treasury of much revenue over time is HR 2089, the “Generating Retirement Ownership through Long-term Holding (GROWTH) Act,” sponsored by Representatives Beth Van Duyne (R., Texas) and Terri Sewell (D., Ala.). Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) has the Senate equivalent, S. 1839. The GROWTH Act would end the annoying practice of mutual funds having to pass through their capital gains to shareholders every year, saddling 11 million savers with a tax bill even if they haven’t sold any shares of their mutual fund. Under the proposed bill, these annual taxes would still be owed, but they’d be deferred to the time when the shareholder actually sells some of the mutual fund shares. It turns an annual paperwork headache into a one-time event.

Pertaining to investment, Congress could cut down on needless junk mail for savers. HR 2441, the “Improving Disclosure for Investors Act of 2025,” directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to make e-delivery the default for brokerage firms, with an opt-out if investors prefer paper statements and prospectuses. By now, Americans are used to getting just about everything electronically, so this is a no-brainer bill whose time has come. The Senate companion bill is S. 1877, introduced by Senator Thom Tillis (R., N.C.)

Another area for Congress to examine is the Roth IRA, which needs simplifying. Roth IRAs allow workers to save up to an annual, inflation-adjusted $7,000 (plus a $1,000 catch-up if you’re older than 50) in an account that then grows tax-free for retirement. The biggest hitch with these accounts is the relatively low dollar limit before eligibility starts to phase out ($150,000 in 2025, or $236,000 for married taxpayers). Financial planners have figured out ways around these limits by making an annual, nonsensical, and nondeductible IRA contribution of $7,000 and converting it to a Roth IRA (a so-called “backdoor Roth”). As a result, the AGI limits are annoying deadwood that make no sense. Congress should repeal them.

There’s plenty for Congress and the new IRS Commissioner Billy Long to do in order to make the tax system easier for people to manage. There are thousands of practitioners and other tax experts happy to work with them to help them do it. All they need to do is ask, and they can be the next “why didn’t this get fixed years ago” story of the second Trump term.