Getting To Know You Tuesday: Terry Lemons

Terry Lemons has had the kind of career that’s hard to sum up in just a few sentences. He started out as a newspaper reporter covering the White House and Congress before spending 26 years at the IRS, where he became one of the agency’s most recognizable voices. Along the way, he created the IRS Dirty Dozen tax scams list, helped bring the agency into the social media age, and worked with six IRS Commissioners. Since retiring from government service in 2025, he’s taken on new roles with Frost Law and Verito.

Terry’s also a public speaker. I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Terry at quite a few events, including Tax Tea with Lemons and Erb, where we talk taxes, the IRS, and whatever else comes up. It’s always a good time, and I suspect we enjoy ourselves at least as much as the audience does.

We also share a love of baseball. Terry is a devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan and even wrote a book about the Cardinals and the 1926 World Series this summer called “The Year St. Louis Became A Baseball Town: The Cardinals, Babe Ruth & The 1926 World Series.” (I admire his enthusiasm, even if I think he picked the wrong team.)

So, let’s get to know Terry.

In His Own Words

1. Where are you right now? I’m in the Washington, DC, area these days.

2. What’s your official title, and what do you actually do? My main focus is doing public relations for Frost Law, a firm in the metro Washington DC area that focuses a lot on tax and controversy issues as well as working closely with tax professionals. I’m also serving as a strategic advisor for Verito, which provides tax firms with cloud hosting and managed IT services.

3. Where did you go to school, and what did you study? I grew up in St. Louis and headed down the road to Mizzou, where I studied at the world’s oldest journalism school.

4. How did you end up in tax? It was an unusual confluence of events. The IRS had taken a beating in Congress in 1997 and 1998, and, well, they badly needed some press help. I was in Washington, DC, covering the Clinton administration for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock. Clinton’s term was starting to wind down, and the babies had started arriving in my house. And don’t laugh too hard, but I decided it might be fun—or at least interesting—to take a shot at helping the IRS with public relations. There never seemed to be a dull moment; I should’ve bought stock in Tums.

5. What was your first real job? Does working as a delivery boy as a teenager at a St. Louis drugstore count? I worked my tail off—and didn’t even make minimum wage. But the hustle I needed on that job has stuck with me my entire career.

6. What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? My eclectic background can catch people by surprise.  And my weakness for donuts.

7. If you weren’t working in tax, what would you be doing? Great question. Given how the newspaper industry’s struggles intensified in the late 1990s, I would have had to get out. Maybe I would’ve written those movie scripts I’ve been contemplating for decades.

8. What’s the best piece of tax, money, or career advice you’ve ever received? When I was working in the Congressional press galleries back in the 1990s, someone told me that saving money amounts to paying your future self. And if you’re not saving and investing, you’re short-changing your future self. It’s a piece of advice more people in their 20s and 30s need to hear. And boy, did it make a difference for me.

9. What tax issue do you think is getting too much attention right now? That’s tough. Lots of areas in tax need more attention. Trump Accounts, at least at the moment, seem to be getting an outsize amount of attention given the amount of money involved, but I applaud the goal of getting people more focused on saving for retirement at a young age. It’s a critically overlooked area.

10. What tax issue isn’t getting enough attention? I think many people—and many of our leaders—are sleeping on the federal deficit. Attention on the federal debt goes in cycles, and we’re definitely at a low point right now. But the deficit—and the massive interest payments on the debt—continue to skyrocket. At some point, Washington is going to wake up and realize this isn’t sustainable. When that happens, additional tax revenue is going to be critical to get the nation back on better financial footing. And they’re not just going to need the IRS to do that, they’re going to need the entire tax community to help.

11. What’s the biggest tax myth you’d like to bust? All that misleading social media advice about tax is always a favorite. But another one is the myth that people inside the IRS revel in the complexity of the tax code; in reality, the tax system’s intricacies create massive headaches for the IRS workforce. If you could have a vote inside the IRS, it would be a landslide in favor of tax simplification.

12. What’s a tax question you wish people would ask you more often? Where can they get an autographed copy of my book? Email me! But seriously, though, I think it would be where can they go for reliable tax advice. Taxes are one of the biggest financial issues people deal with each year. Instead of going it alone and trying to figure things out, I’m surprised more people that have a more detailed return don’t turn to a tax professional for help.

13. What’s one tax rule you would change if you could? Gee, that’s a target-rich environment. So I would modify your question to be what’s one step that could improve a number of issues? I think Congress approving the Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act before the end of this year could eliminate a bunch of taxpayer and tax pro headaches in one package. The National Taxpayer Advocate and a ton of people in the tax community have spent years working on that package.

14. What’s one non-tech thing in your office that you couldn’t do without? Coffee!

15. Which tech tool, platform, or software do you rely on most in your practice? I do a lot of writing and editing, so I’m kind of old school in a sense. The internet, Microsoft Word and email remain at the top of my list.

16. What’s the best use of AI in tax or tax practice? It’s a bit like having a young junior associate around. It can help out on a lot of things and save a ton of time, but with the complexity of tax and law, you sure better take time to double check things. AI is already starting to shake the foundations of many sectors, and it’s going to have a big impact on tax practice. Tax pros aren’t going to be replaced by AI, but they need to stay on their toes with AI. Late adopters will quickly fall behind given how AI is moving at lightspeed right now.

17. What are you watching right now (streaming or otherwise)? Ted Lasso has some marvelous writing and amusing characters. And Silo has been a gripping dystopian thriller that’s been a bit overlooked.

18. Coffee or tea? Oh, coffee is my constant companion. And I don’t rule out a splash of Bailey’s.

19. Pancakes or waffles? Now I’m hungry. The texture of waffles puts it over the top for me, but I won’t say no to a good pancake. And thank you for not putting donuts into the question.

20. If you received an unexpected tax refund tomorrow, what would you do with it? I’d head to either Commander’s Palace in New Orleans or to Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas for a really good meal and a tasty bottle of wine.

You can find out more about Terry and his book on his website and view his profile on LinkedIn. You can also follow him on Instagram.

About Getting to Know You

If you’d like to recommend a tax pro to be featured, send your suggestions to gtky (at) taxgirl (dot) com with the subject: Getting to Know You Tuesday. Self-nominations are totally okay and encouraged! If you’ve submitted a nomination before, feel free to send it again. I’ll consider all submissions, even those that were selected, so long as they were more than three years ago.