Paul L. Caron
Dean





Saturday, January 21, 2017

The IRS Scandal, Day 1353: Will The Trump IRS End, Or Embrace, Targeting Of Disfavored Groups?

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Joe Kristan (Tax Update Blog), Obama’s Tax Policy: How Much Will Survive?:

Obama tax policy was a sharp break from the Bush years. The Trump years, in turn, will likely veer off the Obama path in many areas. Here’s my list of the big developments in tax policy during the Obama years, and my guesses as to how they will fare under Trump. ...

IRS Scandal.  IRS exempt organizations official Lois Lerner blew open the Tea Party scandal by planting a staged question at a May 2013 conference. The modified limited hangout failed to contain the scandal, which still is working through courtrooms 1351 days later. Commissioner Koskinen’s apathetic and clumsy response to the admission that right-leaning organizations were targeted for special scrutiny on their exemption applications (and remember, this was admitted at the start, only to be walked back later) sowed distrust, and appropriations reductions, that cripple the agency still.

I would be surprised if Koskinen stays in office much past tomorrow. The real question is whether the new administration reverses the weaponization of the IRS, or just adopts it.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/01/the-irs-scandal-day-1353-will-the-trump-irs-end-or-embrace-targeting-of-disfavored-groups.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

Well, since the original targeting was unconstitutional, I hope not.

But there's a very simple civics test that works here: If and when the Trump administration proposes policies or takes actions that further restrict or violate the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 10th, and 14th Amendments, then they'll be at least as bad on Constitutional issues as the Obama administration has been: essentually, expanding Bush administration counter-terrorism policies, with a couple of new arguments made for some novel violations, namely the killing of American citizens overseas while not engaged in combat. However, if Trump doesn't proceed as expected, I'll be pleasantly surprised...

Posted by: MM | Jan 23, 2017 7:33:26 PM

I think Trump will reverse it because he knows it's just wrong. However, I would like to see him take his time doing it, just to put the fear of God into the liberals who allowed this to happen.

Posted by: bflat879 | Jan 21, 2017 9:12:12 AM

"The real question is whether the new administration reverses the weaponization of the IRS, or just adopts it."
It depends on who Trump listens to. If he listens to some of his more extreme trumpie cultists, who think constitutional limits and due process are a sign of cuckservative weakness, I expect we will end up with a prez every bit as tyranical as Obama, just with favored groups reversed. I expect that is also what the leftists also fear, that Trump will treat them as unjustly as Obama treated us. But there is also a large group of liberty repubs, who insist on constitutional and due process limits, and are no more eager to have a repub tyrant than a dem one, who would stop Trump if he went too far.

Posted by: richard40 | Jan 21, 2017 8:29:34 AM