Thursday, May 16, 2013
The IRS Scandal, Day 7
- The Atlantic: 'Angry' Obama: IRS Chief Is Out, and New Safeguards Are Coming
- Bloomberg: Congress Focuses on IRS Delay in Disclosing Tea Party Scrutiny
- Bloomberg: IRS Says Concerns About Some Tea Party Groups Prompted Label
- Boston Globe editorial: In Targeting Conservative Groups, IRS Violated Core Principles
- Cato Institute: The IRS Scandal: Hiding In Plain Sight, by Walter Olson
- Columbia Journalism Review: The Other IRS Scandal: Required Context for a Controversy, by David Cay Johnston
- CNN: Source: Two 'Rogue' Workers Principally Behind IRS Targeting of Conservatives
- Daily Caller: Scandal-Plagued IRS Official Will Give Speech, Receive Award at College Commencement
- Forbes: Suit Alleges IRS Improperly Seized 60 Million Personal Medical Records
- Human Events: Left-Wing Groups Sailed Past the Politicized IRS
- L.A. Times: The Real Scandal: IRS Gives Tax Exemptions to Political Partisans
- Legal Ethics Forum: IRS Scandal: Why Reveal at the ABA Conference? (The Answer Isn't Flattering to the IRS), by John Steele
- National Law Journal: Scandal Could Change How IRS Regulates Political Groups
- National Review: Defending the Taxman: Debunking the IRS Excuses and Evasions
- National Review: Director of IRS Tax-Exempt Determinations Office is Obama Donor
- National Review: IRS Employees Disproportionately Donate to Obama: Statistics Reveal an Imbalance in a Nominally Nonpartisan Agency
- National Review: IRS Source: Cincinnati Told to Lock Down Data
- New York Times: Acting Chief of IRS Forced Out Over Tea Party Targeting
- New York Times editorial: Take Politics Away From the IRS
- New York Times op-ed: The Real IRS Scandal
- New York Times Opinionator: The Taxman Cometh, by David Brooks & Gail Collins
- Reuters: US Senator Probing Why IRS Revealed Mistakes at Lawyer Meeting
- The Right Sphere: Speaking of Shady 501(c)(4) Non-Profits…
- Slate: It’s About Disclosure, Stupid: The Larger Failing Behind the Terrible IRS Treatment of Tea Party Groups, by Richard L. Hasen (UC-Irvine)
- Wall Street Journal editorial: Your Next IRS Political Audit: The Tax Agency Is Getting Vast New Power in Health Care
- Wall Street Journal editorial: Democrats and the IRS: Chuck Schumer Wanted the Agency to Probe Tax-Exempt Political Groups
- Wall Street Journal op-ed: The Senate Roots of the IRS Scandal: High-ranking Democrats in 2010 Began Egging the Agency to Investigate Conservative Nonprofits
- Wall Street Journal: A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting: One Survey Found That 75% of IRS Respondents Felt Entitled to Deceive or Lie to Congress
- Wall Street Journal: The 'Independent' Revenue Service: President Obama Has a Strange View of IRS Political Accountability
- Wall Street Journal: Tax Scandal Fells IRS Chief
- Washington Post: Acting Director of IRS Resigns Amid Furor Over Targeting of Conservative Groups
- Washington Examiner: IRS Exec Got $42K in Bonuses in Three Years
IRS, Exempt Organization Field Examination Flowchart:
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/05/the-.html
Comments
Woody, you didn't give Lerner credit for announcing the problem before the report came out. She beat it by six days.
It's churlish to ask why she didn't come clean a year ago. Everybody knows that you only confess after you are certain you will be exposed. Bill Clinton taught us that, and Nixon before him.
Posted by: AMTbuff | May 16, 2013 4:35:56 PM
Nice flow chart, but it has nothing to do with this situation. No organization needs to apply for 501(c)(4) recognition. They need only file a form 990 for the relevant tax year. If the IRS disagrees with the assertion of tax exempt status, THEN it will start an exam. Filing a form 1023 and requesting recognition of 501(c)(4) status is kind of like asking for a private letter ruling before taking a business deduction on your form 1040. It's prudent, but not necessary.
Posted by: Publius Novus | May 16, 2013 10:53:41 AM
For anyone wondering what it means to chill political speech (the type most deserving of protection), here is eyewitness testimony:
Jennifer Stefano I was just a stay-at-home mother. I was pregnant with another baby, and I wanted to do what was right. My Tea Party group was becoming really large and I couldn't run the money and the donations through my bank account. I was advised the IRS would come after you for that.Willis: "Well, what were they asking you?"
Stefano: You know, "Send us your Facebook pages, your Twitter pages," and I said, "Does that include personal pages?" and they said, "Everything." They wanted to know your personal relationships with politicians and political parties. And I asked, "What would happen if I don't send this to you?" and they said, they made an insinuation like, "Look, it can be considered perjury if you omit things from the IRS." I'm a pregnant stay-at-home mother on one income, I thought, "Oh, my goodness, I'm not doing anything." I stopped.
Here's more: “It was pretty much a proctology exam through your earlobe”
Posted by: Yo Gabba Gabba | May 16, 2013 10:34:11 AM
I enjoyed this from The Daily Caller article:
Lois Lerner, the IRS official now at the center of a scandal involving tax agents who selectively targeted conservative groups, is scheduled to receive an award and give the commencement address at Western New England University School of Law. ... In its announcement of Lerner’s award, the university praised her for enhancing transparency and promoting good government ethics at the IRS.
Posted by: Woody | May 16, 2013 8:12:48 AM
How about yanking the tax exempt status of any organization, left, right or center, that engages in any kind of political activity whatsoever. Why should the taxpayers pick up the dime for this?
Posted by: George | May 16, 2013 7:42:46 AM
You're right, AMTbuff. Such honesty by Lerner should be credited.
Lerner’s admission of IRS’s inappropriate behavior was pre-planned public disclosure
Posted by: Woody | May 17, 2013 12:45:01 PM