During more than 26 years at the IRS, Terry Lemons played a pivotal role overseeing the tax agency’s communications and outreach efforts for taxpayers and tax professionals. His behind-the-scenes duties included advising six different IRS Commissioners, creating the IRS “Dirty Dozen” tax scams list in 2002 and establishing the innovative IRS social media program. 

Following his retirement as a government executive in 2025, Lemons has written on tax issues for publications including The Hill and Forbes.com while commenting in publications ranging from The New York Times to The Associated Press. He's also spoken about IRS issues at more than a dozen conferences and podcasts. 

In January, Lemons joined Frost Law, a Maryland-based law firm, to serve as Public Relations Director. The firm specializes in tax, business, litigation as well as estate issues and works closely with the tax professional community.
 

Before retiring from government in 2025, Lemons worked for 11 years as the IRS Chief of Communications and Liaison. He led a 325-person team and oversaw the agency’s work with the tax professional community, Congress, the news media as well as internal communications to 100,000 employees.

Among his many accomplishments at the IRS, Lemons played a lead role in the agency's efforts on identity theft. He co-chaired the Security Summit communications team, part of a joint public-private effort to battle tax-related identity theft. The Summit coalition brought together the IRS, state tax administrators and the tax and financial community, successfully protecting millions of taxpayers and billions of dollars from identity theft. 

In 2017, his work on the Security Summit and identity theft helped him receive a Presidential Rank award – the highest award presented to a member of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service. 

Before joining the IRS in 1998, Lemons spent 15 years as an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor, including serving as Washington bureau chief of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He covered the White House and Congress for the Little Rock-based newspaper following Bill Clinton’s victory in the 1992 presidential election.

During his government and journalism career, he has conducted hundreds of media interviews, ranging from NBC’s Today Show and the PBS Newshour to dozens of major newspaper and radio outlets.

After retiring from the IRS, Lemons has returned to writing. A University of Missouri graduate and a die-hard Cardinals fan, the St. Louis native's Lemons’ first book is on baseball, not taxes. “The Year St. Louis Became A Baseball Town” is being published this summer by The History Press.