Full Subscriber Edition: https://citedauthorities.substack.com/p/how-the-irs-dirty-dozen-was-created Terry Lemons spent more than 26 years at the IRS, 11 of them leading communications for the agency. Before that he covered the 1992 presidential campaign, Congress, and the White House as a newspaper reporter. Today he handles public relations at Frost Law, and he just wrote a book about the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals. He joined the IRS in 1998, right after the Roth hearings had put the agency through the wringer, and he stayed through six commissioners from Charles Rossotti to Danny Werfel. Around 2002 he built the Dirty Dozen, the IRS list of tax scams that still runs every year. As he tells it: "I branded it. . . . Went back to that old movie called The Dirty Dozen, and came up with 12 tax scams." We talk about why he left reporting to go inside government, how he tried to humanize an agency people love to hate, and why he thinks so many taxpayers get pulled into scams. "That tax refund for a lot of people is the biggest single financial transaction they make all year," he says, and that is exactly what the scammers count on. Then we get to baseball. His new book is "The Year St. Louis Became a Baseball Town: The Cardinals, Babe Ruth, and the 1926 World Series. He walks through the story behind Grover Cleveland Alexander, Branch Rickey inventing the minor league system, and a game seven that ended with Babe Ruth caught stealing second base. Terry's book: The Year St. Louis Became a Baseball Town (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Midwest local bookstores) Show notes: citedauthorities.com/episodes/terry-lemons 0:00 Cold open 0:13 Introduction 1:07 Covering the 1992 Clinton campaign 3:46 Leaving journalism for the IRS in 1998 6:38 Making the news instead of reporting it 7:42 Creating the Dirty Dozen 9:50 Tax scams, refunds, and TikTok 11:49 What drew him to journalism 13:36 Huntley, Brinkley, and wartime Washington 14:41 Movie knowledge and the Oscars swag bags Get every new episode and the show notes by email, free, every other Wednesday: citedauthorities.com/subscribe Full video editions for paid members. The Cited Authorities podcast is produced by Cited Authorities LLC, a media company. It is not a law firm. This episode is general information and commentary, not legal advice, and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship. The views expressed are those of the speakers alone and do not represent any firm, employer, or client. If you need advice on your situation, talk to a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.Cited Authorities is a legal interview podcast hosted by Alexander Powell, a tax attorney in Washington, DC. New episodes every other Wednesday. Join Cited Authorities for full-video Subscriber Editions of eligible conversations: https://citedauthorities.substack.com/subscribe All episodes and show notes: https://citedauthorities.com The Cited Authorities podcast is produced by Cited Authorities LLC, a media and software company. It is not a law firm. This episode is general information and commentary, not legal advice, and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship. The views expressed are those of the speakers alone and do not represent any firm, employer, or client. If you need advice on your situation, talk to a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. LISTEN: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cited-authorities/id1879396186 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0VVpaSN7rcg0jbSTbL6Jld YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CitedAuthorities Website: https://citedauthorities.com
