Paul L. Caron
Dean





Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The IRS Scandal, Day 691

IRS Logo 2Forbes, How Obama's IRS And Justice Department Killed The Targeting Scandal, by Robert W. Wood:

The IRS applied extra scrutiny because Mr. Obama’s IRS and Justice Department didn’t like the Supreme Court’s decision, presumably fearing that organizations could exercise free speech rights the Supreme Court said they had. Five years later, and two years after the planted bar association question, we remain partly in the dark. Ms. Lerner won’t testify, and we are still told, including by the President of the United States, that there was not a smidgen of corruption at the IRS.

We are told that the IRS is fixed, the targeting will never happen again, and this was not audit targeting anyhow. Some say these organizations shouldn’t be exempt in any event. Now, though, a comprehensive and disturbing report from Politico enumerates the results the IRS has actually achieved despite platitudes from the Obama administration that the system is fixed.

Far from fixed and never happening again, Politico has exposed the seemingly well designed IRS action of death by delay. It is just one more nail in the coffin Professor Paul Caron catalogs in the IRS scandal, now in day 689. Politico painstakingly describes the tale of woe by at least a half-dozen conservative applicants who, amazingly, are still waiting for an answer. The extent of their hardship varies, and some may still receive relief.

Yet we have by now so often been told by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen that the good works of un-targeting the targeted is done. Maybe, but some people are waiting still five years on.  ... Many conservative groups withdrew their applications and gave up. Others changed their names and focus. Some went belly-up while waiting. Of course, in all this recent history, it is worth recalling that in March 2012, former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman testified there was “absolutely no targeting” by the IRS of conservative and/or Tea Party organizations. On November 9, 2012, Mr. Shulman stepped down as Commissioner, replaced by Steven Miller.

On May 14, 2013, four days after Ms. Lerner’s planted question and feigned lament about it, the Inspector General issued a report confirming targeting. On May 22, 2013, Ms. Lerner professed her innocence, then took the Fifth. Next day, she was placed on administrative leave. On June 20, 2013, the IRS paid $70 million in bonuses. Ms. Lerner received $42,000, and former Commissioner Miller received $100,000.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/03/the-irs-14.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

How many of the half-dozen applicants are in litigation with the United States regarding their status?

Posted by: Publius Novus | Mar 31, 2015 6:09:46 AM