Paul L. Caron
Dean





Monday, August 17, 2015

The IRS Scandal, Day 830

IRS Logo 2 Forbes:  Gross Mismanagement At IRS, Says Senate Report, by Robert W. Wood:

After a long wait, the Finance Committee has released a bipartisan report on the IRS scandal. Since some private taxpayer information was at issue, there have been closed door sessions and interviews leading up to the report. The IRS wasn’t really targeting, it was just incompetent, the report seems to suggest. Top IRS managers did not stay informed about the applications involving possible political advocacy.

And management, top management at least, didn’t really monitor things. Lois Lerner was on top of the issues as early as 2010, but failed to tell her superiors, the report suggests. In fact, the report says that under Ms. Lerner’s leadership, the IRS Exempt Organizations unit launched seven initiatives to handle applications from Tea Party and other groups for tax-exempt status. Each of the seven initiatives failed.

That meant long delays—as long as five years—for some organizations awaiting decisions on IRS tax exemption applications. What’s more, the report says IRS employees handling exemption applications did not appear to be worried about delays or customer service. In some cases, organizations got tired of waiting and disbanded. For others, the delays meant forgone grants.

This report was delayed for over a year after the IRS belatedly informed the Senate Finance Committee that the IRS could not recover large numbers of potentially responsive documents. They were lost when Lois Lerner’s hard drive crashed in 2011. 

The report acknowledges that the IRS functioned in a politicized atmosphere following the the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. ...

“Undoubtedly,” the report says ”these events will erode public confidence and sow doubt about the impartiality of the IRS. The lack of candor by IRS management about the circumstances surrounding Lois Lerner’s missing emails may only serve to reinforce those doubts.” It is hard to argue with that.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/the-irs-scandal-day-827.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

This is the government that everyone goes into fits about "shutting down"?

What a joke.

Posted by: Scott | Aug 17, 2015 12:50:12 PM

Gross mismanagement? Lets hold the managers accountable, like Lerner and her superiors. Emails show a concerted effort by IRS managers to go through organized crime like efforts to go after non-Democrats.

Posted by: wodun | Aug 17, 2015 11:41:18 AM

if IRS employee Lerner was grossly incompetent, how did she get promoted to the position she held and how was she given outstanding ratings

Posted by: lord garth | Aug 17, 2015 9:22:01 AM

The fact that this report is such a weak sister is just a reflection that the Democrats on the committee were in total war mode against the truth. They long ago sold out to putting Party Ahead of Country. For them it is about power at ANY price, and ANY means to cover up Democrat crimes are acceptable to them.

Posted by: Andrew Russell | Aug 17, 2015 8:28:32 AM

“Undoubtedly,” the report says ”these events will erode public confidence and sow doubt about the impartiality of the IRS. The lack of candor by IRS management about the circumstances surrounding Lois Lerner’s missing emails may only serve to reinforce those doubts.”

As my teenage kids would say, Duh.

Worse than that, the lack of faith I have in Congressional oversight makes me believe that these conclusions are watered down, if not outright misleading. The burden of proof should be on the IRS to show beyond a "smidgen" of a doubt that there were NO political machinations and interference going on, and inflict severe punishment on anyone involved, (e.g., Lois Lerner bonus money should be clawed back.)

Posted by: ruralcounsel | Aug 17, 2015 5:03:10 AM