Paul L. Caron
Dean





Friday, March 27, 2015

The IRS Scandal, Day 687

IRS Logo 2Town Hall, Congress Should Protect the Fair Treatment for All Donations:

Beginning in 2010, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) systematically targeted taxpayers based on their political beliefs. Unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats at the IRS deliberately slowed and denied applications for tax-exempt status because the applicants did not share their politics. Although it’s deeply concerning that unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the IRS were using the tax code to restrict free speech, what’s more unfathomable is that Congress has done very little to date to protect individuals from future IRS targeting.

Congress should act to protect citizens of all political persuasions from similar politically-motivated targeting in the future. Thankfully the House Ways and Means Committee is currently working on legislation that would help. The bill prohibits the IRS from applying the federal gift tax to contributions to tax-exempt organizations.

The original intent of the federal gift tax was to stop taxpayers from sidestepping the federal death tax—i.e., transferring gifts of money while an aging taxpayer is still alive instead of paying a 40 percent tax on the entire estate after death. Congress did not enact the gift tax to apply to contributions made to tax-exempt organizations.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/03/the-irs-13.html

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