Paul L. Caron
Dean





Friday, May 2, 2014

The IRS Scandal, Day 358

IRS Logo 2Power Line:  Bill Henck: Inside the IRS, Part 2:

William Henck has worked inside the IRS Office of the Chief Counsel as an attorney for over 26 years. We posted his personal account, including his testimony to a retaliatory audit conducted by the IRS against him, this past February in “Inside the IRS.” This post follows up on the matters discussed in that post. 

IRS executives are confident in their lack of accountability because the decision makers in Washington will not hold them accountable. Ordinary people understand that misconduct and corruption in the national tax collection agency is a critical problem. They also understand the difference between right and wrong. Ordinary people, however, are not running things.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/05/the-irs-scandal-1.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

The black liquor issue is an interesting one. But it is not a scandal. The IRS takes many positions on the tax law that are "liberal" as respects taxpayers. The interpretation of "social welfare organizations" as being permitted to engage in partisan politics--in any amount--is one. There are numerous revenue rulings on the books that a strict constructionist might well consider excessively liberal in interpretation and enforcement. These are not scandals, but rather, administrative adjustments necessitated by an excessively complex tax system. We would do well to recognize the differences, lest we entirely lose our perspective on what is worthy of condemnation and what simply needs to be changed.

Posted by: Publius Novus | May 2, 2014 7:15:44 AM