The IRS Scandal, Day 1010

Washington Free Beacon, Study: Taxpayers Targeted at Higher Rates Under Democratic Presidents:

The Internal Revenue Service targets individual taxpayers and corporations for audits at higher rates when Democrats are in control of the White House, according to a study highlighted by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy.

The study by Sutirtha Bagchi, an assistant professor of economics at Villanova University, examined IRS budget and personnel figures dating back to 1978 to determine “whether presidential administrations use executive power to affect IRS resources and priorities and thus influence the effective tax rate to support their larger policy goals,” according to the Shorenstein Center.

The study found a statistically significant correlation between the party of the president and the number of individual income tax returns audited by the IRS. On average, four percent more individual income tax audits were performed under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations.

Corporate income tax audits were found to be five percent higher under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations. ...

Harvard’s Shorenstein Center highlighted the study as the IRS faces criticism for targeting conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status before the 2012 presidential election. ...

On Monday, Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, named IRS Commissioner John Koskinen its 2015 “Porker of the Year” due to a “long litany of incompetence and obstruction” as head of the agency.

“Over the course of several hearings investigating the IRS targeting of conservative groups, Commissioner Koskinen repeatedly stonewalled and mislead members of Congress during the search for Lois Lerner’s emails, while refusing to ensure that IRS targeting would never happen again,” the group said.

“His agency, in the face of a congressional subpoena, erased backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails from Lerner. Worse yet, a July 23, 2015 Government Accountability Office report found that more than two years after the scandal gained national attention, ‘the IRS has not taken sufficient steps to prevent targeting Americans based on their personal beliefs.’”

Investigators at the Government Accountability Office warned earlier this month that the IRS could still inappropriately target organizations due to deficiencies in how they are selected for audits.

“The control deficiencies increase the risk of selecting organizations for audit in an unfair manner—for example, based on an organization’s religious, educational, political, or other views,” a GAO investigator said.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 1009 (Feb. 12, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1008 (Feb. 11, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1007 (Feb. 10, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1006 (Feb. 9, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1005 (Feb. 8, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1004 (Feb. 7, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1003 (Feb. 6, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1002 (Feb. 5, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1001 (Feb. 4, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 901-1000 (Oct. 27, 2015 - Feb. 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 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)