Oh My: IRS Apologizes For Inappropriately Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 E

[Busybody]

Oh My: IRS Apologizes For Inappropriately Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 Election…




Wow.


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.

Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.

 

[Busybody]

House GOP To Take Action Against IRS For Targeting Conservatives Over Their Political Beliefs…




Heads need to roll.


WASHINGTON – Ahead of an impending report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the Internal Revenue Service today disclosed that it had targeted certain tax-exempt organizations for their political beliefs.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., requested the IG look into allegations of political retaliation last June. In response to the today’s disclosure and apology by IRS, Issa and Jordan issued the following statement:

“The fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable. The Committee will aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”

 

[Busybody]

Flashback: NY Times Backs IRS Political Attacks On Conservatives…




No group flaunts IRS rules more than Obama’s “non-profit” OFA, you think the Times would support a crackdown on that organization?

The I.R.S. Does Its Job — NY Times, March 7, 2012


Taxpayers should be encouraged by complaints from Tea Party chapters applying for nonprofit tax status at being asked by the Internal Revenue Service to prove they are “social welfare” organizations and not the political activists they so obviously are.

Tea Party supporters claim they are being politically harassed with extensive I.R.S. questionnaires. But the service properly contends that it must ensure that these groups are “primarily” engaged in social welfare, not political campaigning, to merit tax exemption under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

Such I.R.S. inquiries are long overdue and should be applied across the board to the growing number of organizations, allied with the major political parties, that are also ludicrously posing as “social welfare” groups. Legitimate social welfare organizations are allowed limited political activity. But these political offshoots are using that tax status in a transparent ploy to keep big donors secret while funneling the money to campaigns. Chief among these groups are American Crossroads, the campaign machine created by Republican guru Karl Rove, and Priorities USA, the Democratic counterpart founded by former White House aides, now openly encouraged by President Obama as he runs for re-election.

These groups, which already have 501(c)(4) status, should be as thoroughly investigated as any Tea Party chapter applying for that tax exempt status. So should two other blatant offenders: the conservative American Action Network, a “social welfare” claimant reported by the Center for Public Integrity to have spent more than 80 percent of its expenditures on the 2010 elections; and Americans Elect, a third-party effort enjoying “social welfare” secrecy as it secures ballot space across the nation.

All these groups should be operating as political organizations required to disclose their donors under the law. Blatant abuses of tax law and common sense are part of the laissez-faire dynamic that is driving the 2012 campaigns. The I.R.S. must not flinch from its duty to enforce the tax code and root out political operatives who are abusing the law and conning taxpayers and voters.

 

[Busybody]

I know!


WARDROBE!


ROCKS!


HAIRCUTZ!


TONED ARMZ

 

[Busybody]

Stand by for updates.

Update: I want to know why the word “patriot” in particular triggered some sort of extra scrutiny. That smells like something you’d see on “Hardball,” treating tea partiers as if they’re some sort of nascent domestic terrorists simply because McVeigh-type nuts often use the word “patriot” too. Is that what happened here, smearing tea party groups with guilt by rhetorical association? Or was this more straightforward harassment of a political opponent?

Update: Some of these tea-party groups have since been granted tax exemption thanks to the ACLJ, which has been litigating on their behalf for more than a year.


As a recap to this past year’s efforts on this front, when these groups submitted their initial requests to the IRS, the IRS did little or nothing with respect to their submitted applications and, in some instances, waited for over 18-20 months to respond.

Once we informed the IRS of our representation of these groups, within days of our taking action we began to receive a high level of cooperation from the agency with regard to these organizations’ files…

Our original assessment of these cases last year raised serious Constitutional concerns. These intrusive requests for extreme amounts of information – in their content, breadth, and vagueness – implicated the free speech rights of our clients and their organizations. As we stated before, requests for the personal information of the organization’s membership lists ran afoul of NAACP v. Alabama and implicated their rights to freedom of association…

As we noted in our extensive coverage of this story last year, the IRS appeared to have been using the routine process of seeking and granting tax exemptions to undertake a sweeping, top-down review of the internal workings of the Tea Party movement in the United States. Such a review is far beyond its mission and directly implicated the First Amendment rights of all citizens.

Here’s a PDF of some of the questions asked by the IRS. Note page 8.

Update: Lerner apparently claimed today that no higher-ups at the IRS knew and that the harassment was not motivated by political bias, even though progressive groups mysteriously seem to have been spared these intrusive inquiries.


In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she added.

Update: Glenn Greenwald notes on Twitter that the New York Times dismissed tea partiers’ complaints about this last year and encouraged the IRS to be similarly aggressive towards other 501(c)(4) groups.

Update: Darrell Issa’s going to have a busy summer.



Update: Mary Katharine e-mails with this link to remind me that The One joked about punitive tax audits of his opponents after first taking office in 2009. Tee hee! Who’s getting fired for this clusterfark, champ?

Update: As is usually true for Democratic scandals, the media’s angle on the story will quickly become not the scandal itself but the GOP’s reaction to it. Don’t focus on the misdeeds, focus on the politics.

 

[Busybody]

THAT WAS FAST: McConnell Calls For Government-Wide Probe After IRS Apology For Targeting Conservatives.







SO WHEN HE WAS NEW IN OFFICE, BARACK OBAMA JOKED ABOUT TAX AUDITS FOR PEOPLE WHO DISPLEASED HIM. Now the IRS has admitted that it targeted conservative and Tea Party groups in 2012.

 

[Busybody]

Lets all say


THIS IS TIRESOME


MAN U FACTURED OUTRAGE


TONED ARMS


RACIST ROCKS!

 

[Busybody]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Demands Obama Admin Investigate IRS For Targeting Conservative Groups…




McConnell was ripping the IRS last summer over this (who promptly denied his charges).


(AP) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is calling on the Obama administration to conduct a government-wide probe in the wake of an admission by the Internal Revenue Service that it targeted conservative groups.

The IRS apologized on Friday for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.

McConnell says the admission is proof that his earlier concerns were well founded, adding the White House needs to review the agency’s actions.

“Now more than ever we need to send a clear message to the Obama administration that the First Amendment is non-negotiable, and that apologies after an election year are not an sufficient response to what we now know took place at the IRS,” he says. “This kind of political thuggery has absolutely no place in our politics.

During a fiery speech last summer, McConnell said the Obama administration was unfairly targeting tea party groups through the IRS. He later accused the White House of violating their First Amendment rights and compared the agency’s actions to the Nixon administration.

At the time, the IRS denied it was examining those organizations based on their political views.

 

[Busybody]

IRS Official During Conference Call On Targeting Conservative Groups: “I’m Not Good At Math”…




Via Free Beacon:


A senior official from the Internal Revenue Service conceded Friday afternoon that she is “not good at math” during a conference call on the IRS targeting of conservative groups during the 2012 election.

The statement was in response to a question about what one-quarter of 300 is. The IRS flagged approximately 75 conservative groups that included the words “tea party” or patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status for further review. The official is a lawyer.

 

[Busybody]

The

IRS

Will

Be

HANDLING

OBAMACARE

COMPLIANCE

 

[phrodeau]

Maybe the IRS is that third agency Rick Perry wanted to eliminate.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Busybody]

The IRS apologizes for violating the rights of Americans, for illegally targeting groups with the words "patriots" in their names?

Why should the American people accept their apology? I say try those responsible and send them to federal prison, starting with those who conceived the idea all the way down to those who carried it out. How can we expect to secure our liberty by winking at this kind of shit?

Obama suggested it DAY 1 he got into office

 

[unregistered]

 

[Busybody]

LIBZ and DUMZ will scream


MAN

U

FACTURED

OUT

RAGE


Homophobic HAIRCUTS the real issue

 

[Busybody]

this administration in as bad as Nixons


worse, in that PEOPLE DIED

 

[Busybody]

Novel defense


WE BLAME BUSH


Carney: I.R.S. Run By Bush Political Appointee

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, in response to a question about the I.R.S. targeting conservative groups, that the I.R.S. is run by a George W. Bush political appointee:



"I.R.S. is an independent enforcement agency," said Carney. "The -- which I believe, as I understand it, contains only two political appointees within it. The individual who is running the I.R.S. at the time was actually an appointee from the previous administration."

The previous administration was George W. Bush's administration.

 

[Busybody]

IRS Admits to Targeting Conservative Groups in 2012 Election

IRS Logo 2After months of denying that the IRS has been targeting tea party groups for special scrutiny, Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS's Exempt Organizations Division, admitted that the IRS had been giving additional scrutiny to applications for tax-exempt status from goups with the "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their title. She denied there was any political motivation and blamed the practice on a low-level employee in Cincinnati.

Update: The IRS has released this statement.
•ABC News, Tea Party Rejects IRS Apology
•Daily Beast: The IRS Takes Aim at the Tea Party
•Election Law Blog, “IRS Apologizes For Targeting Conservative Groups In 2012 Election”
•Forbes, IRS to Tea Party: Sorry We Targeted You and Your Tax Status
•National Review, 'Mistakes Were Made'
•New York Times, IRS Apologizes to Conservative Groups Over Application Audits
•Volokh Conspiracy, IRS Admits Targeting “Tea Party” Groups
•Wall Street Journal, IRS Apologizes for Scrutiny of Conservative Groups
•Washington Post, IRS Admits Targeting Conservatives for Tax Scrutiny in 2012 Election
•Washington Times, Congress Vows to Investigate IRS Over Conservative Audits

 

[mercury14]

Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The AP that no high level IRS officials knew about the practice.

Agency officials found out about the practice last year and moved to correct it, the IRS said in a statement. The statement did not specify when officials found out.
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About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked

Low level workers asked too many questions that led absolutely nowhere. You're all going to overreact and look ridiculous again, have at it.

 

[unregistered]

 

[unregistered]

 

[mercury14]

Here we have an un-elected bureaucracy with enormous power singling out individuals and groups based on their conservative political beliefs. Obviously this agency is following orders from administration officials to target those groups that threaten the political fortunes of the President and the Democrat Party. The Congress needs to investigate and find out who those individuals are. People need to go to jail. Jay Carney is getting grilled as we speak. This may be as big or bigger than the Benghazi affair.

OBVIOUSLY people need to go to jail for what is OBVIOUSLY a vast conspiracy!

"Today's acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups in the heat of last year's national election is not enough," McConnell said. "I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not under way at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views."

Mitch McConnell wants like 2.2 million government employees investigated now.

 

[mercury14]

The fact is the bureaucracy is an inherently liberal entity, it's unionized, and those unions support Democrats and the Obama administration. This is an illegal activity, an apology isn't appropriate, it's time to fire people and send others to prison. How can one possibly trust this agency in the future.

What law did they break? There's probably a reg but I doubt it's a prison level felony. Sorry.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Busybody]

Low level workers asked too many questions that led absolutely nowhere. You're all going to overreact and look ridiculous again, have at it.

Oh PLEASE