Wednesday, August 12, 2015
The IRS Scandal, Day 825
Forbes: Bristol Palin At Heart Of IRS Scandal - Who Knew?, by Peter J. Reilly:
What Does Bristol Plain Have To Do With The IRS Scandal?
The section of the report where this revelation is included is titled “Lois Lerner’s Management of the EO Examination Unit Reveal Her Political Bias Against Conservative Organization”. In the subsection “Lois Lerner Intervened in Audit Decisions Involving Political Organizations” we have
Teen Pregnancy Organization Affiliated With Bristol Palin
Another example of Lerner’s interest in conservative organizations occurred in 2011, when Lerner considered opening an audit of a group with ties to Bristol Palin. There were reports that Palin received $332,500 in compensation from the Candie’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to prevent teen pregnancy. Upon receiving an article containing this information, Lerner took the initiative to ask her senior advisors if the IRS should open an audit of the organization:
“Thoughts on the Bristol Palin issue? I’m curious that a [private foundation] can pay any amount to someone who is not a [disqualified person]? It is a [private foundation] right? Even if it were a [public charity] – would that be private benefit – what are the consequences? I’m asking because I don’t know whether to send to Exam as a referral”.
Lerner’s willingness to act on this particular news article – among many that reached her inbox each day – shows that she was paying close attention to conservative politicians and organizations. In its review of nearly 1,500,000 pages of documents provided by the IRS, Majority staff did not find any instances where Lerner referred a progressive organization for audit based on a news article.
Whatever her faults might be Lois Lerner is up on the intersection of pop culture with tax law, although there is some indication that she is either not a careful reader or discerning in her choices of where to read, because she clearly did not grasp what was going on. It seems that her inference was that the Palin clan had started a teen pregnancy foundation, since they had some experience with it. That was not at all what had happened. You actually don’t have to go beyond forbes.com to get the story behind the story. ...
What Does This Say About Lois Lerner?
I think the Republicans have busted her on this one. That email really is evidence of reflexive anti-conservatism. Certain liberals have a Pavlovian response to the Palin clan. The only thing that gets them to jump up and bark better is mention of the Koch brothers, but there does not seem to be anything funny about them. Conservatives seem to have more triggers – Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Benghazi, but the same principle is at work.
What Does This Say About The Scandal?
So what we have is a reflexive anit-conservative appointed to head the IRS Exempt Group during the Bush administration by an IRS Commissioner appointed by Bush. Is it possible that the big money Republicans figured that they had the IRS exempt group outgunned, but that a reflexive anti-conservative in that position would be tough on the more conservative part of the party. The other thing that the report mentions is that during the whole period of the scandal no audits of exempts were initiated over the political spending issue. So the established dark money organizations were let off scot-free. All the grief went to the Tea Party insurgents who were least able to cope with it.
Remember Lois Lerner Is Not The IRS
The other thing that comes out in the report is that Lois Lerner did not like the line IRS people who were doing the mundane work of the agency and they did not feel supported by her.
- Accounting Today, Did the IRS Target Bristol Palin?
- Breitbart, Sarah Palin Rips Lois Lerner for Targeting Bristol
- Daily Caller, Lois Lerner Wanted To Investigate… Bristol Palin???
- Headlines & Global News, IRS' Lois Lerner Tried to Target Bristol Palin
- Hollywood Gossip, Bristol Palin to the IRS: Go After Beyonce Instead of ME!
- Mediaite, Senate Committee Accuses Lois Lerner of Targeting Bristol Palin
- News Busters, Lois Lerner Considered Targeting Bristol Palin, Nets Skip
- USA Today, Senate Report: IRS' Lerner Also Targeted Bristol Palin
- Washington Examiner, Lois Lerner Considered Targeting Bristol Palin With an Audit
- Washington Free Beacon, Ex-IRS Official Lois Lerner Targeted Bristol Palin for Teen Pregnancy Charity Pay
- Western Journalism, Newly Exposed Document Reveals Shocking Thing Lois Lerner Wanted To Do To Bristol Palin
- The IRS Scandal, Day 824 (Aug. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 823 (Aug. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 822 (Aug. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 821 (Aug. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 820 (Aug. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 819 (Aug. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 818 (Aug. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 817 (Aug. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 816 (Aug. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 815 (Aug. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 814 (Aug. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 813 (July 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 812 (July 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 811 (July 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 810 (July 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 809 (July 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 808 (July 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 807 (July 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 806 (July 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 805 (July 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 804 (July 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 803 (July 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 802 (July 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 801 (July 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
- 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)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/the-irs-scandal-day-825.html
Comments
wodun, I think your "solution" extreme and counter-productive. But certainly a big chunk of IRS management needs to be cleaned out; those that knew or should have known what was going on, and did nothing, or worse, conspired to help.
And if pardons really are "shovel ready", then the names and addresses of those pardoned need to be published, and updated regularly for the next 50 years, like a sex offender registry.
Posted by: ruralcounsel | Aug 12, 2015 9:52:29 AM
Lois Lerner may not be the IRS but she did have a large number of IRS staff at high levels of the organization that willingly colluded with her. IRS needs to be cleaned out, everyone fired, or disbanded entirely. Lerner, Obama, and other Democrat operatives should be in jail but we know they won't face even a smidgeon of punishment and ,likely already have Presidential pardons lined up.
Posted by: wodun | Aug 12, 2015 8:50:10 AM
See how many penalties the IRS abates when they off-handedly decide that a small business owner "should have known" what was going on with payroll tax and corporate filings. There's one standard for small company owners doing business with the IRS and another standard for IRS executives giving the business to them.
Posted by: Woody | Aug 12, 2015 1:30:56 PM