The IRS Scandal, Day 520

Forbes: Is IRS A Smidgen Corrupt? Ask Lois Lerner, NetJets, Buffett & 150 Million Taxpayers, by Robert W. Wood:

[A]ny dealings with the IRS today may be more unsettling than in the past because many have less confidence today that the system is fair and impartial. It is hard to overstate how important this is. Some of it comes back to the last 18 month who’s-on-first routine on display from the IRS.

Lois Lerner wouldn’t talk to Congress, although she is collecting a nice pension. Despite being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, she hasn’t been prosecuted. Maybe her refusal is constitutionally protected, maybe not. Yet after her long silence, in an exclusive interview with Politico, Ms. Lerner said she did nothing wrong and she considers herself the victim.

She bristled at any suggestion she had anything to do with destroying emails, switching to texts to avoid being traced, letting her own liberal views influence her treatment of tea party a_holes, etc. It isn’t only Ms. Lerner who comes off as above the law. IRS Commissioner Koskinen did his share of testifying about the email mess. Sadly, he somehow managed to seem arrogant, uninformed, and perhaps even a tad dismissive that his organization had any explaining to do.

The IRS and its thousands of dedicated employees deserve far better. Yet given the IRS’s current image problem, might some taxpayers feel justified in cheating on their taxes? I hope not, but I’ll bet some might think of this. Some of the public may not be able to get past the apparent stonewalling. Some of the public may wonder if they would get a pass from the IRS if their hard drive ate their tax records.

Some taxpayers may go beyond fudging their taxes and take their distrust to the courts. It already happened with True the Vote’s lawsuit against the IRS. But you can’t win without evidence. See Judge sides with IRS in search for Lerner emails. More suits could be impacted too. As noted in The Lois Lerner App, NetJets has asserted that the IRS “wiped clean a number of computer hard drives containing e-mails and other electronic documents that the government was required to produce.” ...

Will some taxpayers cheat after seeing this kind of behavior? I hope not, but some might justify it to themselves. When thousands of emails go missing from the key time period? And, when no one said anything about the emails being missing until one year into a federal investigation? Might some taxpayers cheat after seeing this kind of behavior? ...

Whatever one’s political views, politics are not supposed to matter to the IRS. Taxes and tax administration can’t be even remotely based on politics. We all need to believe that, and more generally, in the fairness of the system. One’s tolerance for coincidence should not have to be work overtime to be convinced.

• Breitbart:  Another ObamaCare Critic Targeted by IRS
• Daily Caller:  Did Bob Beckel Just Challenge Jason Mattera To A Knife Fight?
• Daily Caller:  EPA Pulls An IRS And Admits To Losing Agency Text Messages
• Fox News:  Pulling 'an IRS'? EPA Reportedly Loses Text Messages Now Sought in Request
• Headline News:  IRS Copycat? EPA Claims To Have Lost Top Official's Text Messages Sought In FOIA Lawsuit

• The IRS Scandal, Day 519 (Oct. 10, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 518 (Oct. 9, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 517 (Oct. 8, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 516 (Oct. 7, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 515 (Oct. 6, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 514 (Oct. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 513 (Oct. 4, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 512 (Oct. 3, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 511 (Oct. 2, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 510 (Oct. 1, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 509 (Sept. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 508 (Sept. 29, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 507 (Sept. 28, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 506 (Sept. 27, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 505 (Sept. 26, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 504 (Sept. 25, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 503 (Sept. 24, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 502 (Sept. 23, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 501 (Sept. 22, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)