The IRS Scandal, Day 605

Forbes:  Bungled IRS Liens, Levies, Audits...But No Targeting, Just Ask Christine O'Donnell, by Robert W. Wood:

IRS audits are infrequent, usually impacting only a tiny fraction of the populace. Yet if you are audited multiple times, you might think you were targeted. If you are a Tea Party political candidate like former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, you might have good reason, especially when the IRS ‘mistakenly’ penalizes you again. She says the IRS audited her for the second time in five years and erroneously levied her bank accounts.

She couldn’t access her checking account as she was preparing to visit relatives. The tea party figure says the IRS mistakenly levied her accounts.“The day before I was heading out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend, my bank told me the IRS had frozen my accounts,” said Ms. O’Donnell. She called the IRS, who said she owed $30,000 in taxes from a 2008 house transaction (one she had fully reported).

She was eventually told the levy was an error and would be released. But the IRS took all her funds, later saying the funds would be returned. The funds have still not been replaced, Ms. O’Donnell said. “They said it was a mistake, and they removed the levy. I’m grateful, but I also wonder what someone with less government experience might do when they find themselves frozen from their money because the IRS got its paperwork mixed up.”

Ms. O’Donnell was asked where she thought her latest IRS run-in fit in the larger controversy over the IRS’s dealings with conservatives. “While I don’t believe in coincidences, it’s possible that this was just bureaucratic bungling. But either way, the IRS has to be held accountable. It needs to do its job right and not target or inconvenience taxpayers unfairly,” she said.

Since the IRS is made up of humans, sometimes the IRS is wrong. Opinions vary whether the IRS has ever targeted people for improper reasons. Richard Nixon supposedly asked the IRS to audit his political enemies. There has been no proof that President Obama tried to influence the IRS in the Tea Party targeting scandal. Yet lost emails from Lois Lerner and other key IRS employees, and numerous changes in the ‘narrative,’ have generated many conspiracy theories.

The topic is always sensitive, and the more it is pooh-poohed, the more tempers flare. For example, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, said, “Nobody believes you,” to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen when the IRS Chief testified that IRS emails really aren’t official records anyhow. As for Ms. O’Donnell, she already had a run in with the IRS when Delaware state authorities accessed her IRS tax file (!) in 2010, right around the time she announced her candidacy.

A story was leaked alleging that she owed back taxes to the IRS. The story was false, and Delaware authorities claim the records check was routine. Even so, a tax lien was placed on a house she had sold two years earlier. The lien was publicized and used to discredit Ms. O’Donnell’s candidacy even though she no longer owned the home in question. The IRS eventually removed the lien, blaming it on a computer error.

• Blue Ridge Now, Report on IRS Scandal Details Wrongdoing
• Marietta Daily Journal, House GOP Finds No Link Between Obama, IRS

• The IRS Scandal, Day 604 (Jan. 3, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 603 (Jan. 2, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 602 (Jan. 1, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 601 (Dec. 31, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 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)