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Thursday, April 14, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1071

IRS Logo 2Washington Times, IRS Must Publicize Sensitive Tea Party Data Obtained in Targeting, Obama Administration Says:

The IRS says it has stopped targeting the tea party — but three years later, the tax agency is still holding on to the sensitive information it pried from the conservative groups through invasive questions, and officials are even vowing to make the answers public.

Groups caught up in the scandal say that is proof the targeting is continuing, and they want the IRS to expunge the information or, at the very least, to make sure it is never released.

Obama administration officials insist they have stopped targeting but say the groups are at fault for following the misguided IRS requests for information. Now, the administration says, there is nothing the tax agency can do but make the information public as the law requires.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court in Washington will be asked to referee the dispute, just one of the legal problems still plaguing the IRS after its 2013 admission that it inappropriately singled out conservative and tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny.

“They asked for things to which they were not entitled,” said Cleta Mitchell, an attorney for True the Vote, one of the tea party nonprofits that got caught up in the targeting scandal. “This is the fruit of the poisonous tree.”

The IRS acknowledged that the questions it asked were inappropriate and weren’t needed to decide on tea party groups’ applications for nonprofit status.

Questions included such sensitive information as the names of all financial contributors; lists of family members, details of their political affiliations and speculation about their plans to run for office; and details of organization members’ outside jobs.

Groups were even told that they must detail members’ private communications with their local legislators or any contact with reporters.

Tea party groups said the questions trampled on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association.

Some tea party organizations, advised by their attorneys, refused to comply. Others figured that the IRS had the upper hand, so they turned over the information despite misgivings.

The IRS has apologized for the intrusive questions but still holds on to the information it gleaned from dozens of tea party groups from 2010 through 2013.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/04/the-irs-scandal-day-1071.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

What is wrong with posting the questions and answers with all names and other information that should not have been sought expunged?
That is usually what is done when the government reveals sensitive material.
When it has illegally solicited information it should have3 the duty to cleanse its files in the same way.

Posted by: Daniel | Apr 14, 2016 9:40:21 AM

A simple hard drive crash should fix the problem.

Posted by: MikeD | Apr 14, 2016 8:03:46 AM