Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

IRS Tag

Posted by New Neo on February 16, 2014 9 Comments
At this point it's tempting to regard the IRS as not-so-secret agents of the Obama administration and the Democrats. This is not paranoia. As Ed Rogers wrote in the WaPo, it is fact:
Encouraged by the lack of a public backlash, an uninquisitive press, cover from the White House and an eager-to-please bureaucracy, the Democrats are boldly counting on the IRS to be their political and policy enforcer.This statement isn’t an overreach by the “vast right-wing conspiracy” or a phony crisis created by hecklers (like me) on the right — it goes back to the early stages of President Obama’s reelection campaign.
Rogers goes on to list some of the more egregious examples of what has occurred and how the administration has been emboldened by the fact that so far there have been few negative consequences to them for their actions. The hue and cry that might have been expected - and to a certain extent came at first, when some of the revelations about Tea Party harassment were revealed - has been muted and blunted. So now the excesses are being further and more openly institutionalized:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 09, 2014 40 Comments
Call it the political equivalent of the "Polar Vortex". As we enter Day 244 of the Internal Revenue Service scandal of suppressing conservative groups by the unfair application of tax-exempt status rules, there is a development that is chilling the hearts of citizen activists everywhere. The IRS is planning to codify its tactics into truly heavy-handed regulations. Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works explains:
“While you were all celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, the Obama Administration was quietly releasing a new set of draconian IRS regulations that would make it virtually impossible for tea parties that want to participate in the political process to do their business. They’re going after conservative groups, they’re going after libertarian groups, and they’re going after citizen groups that want to organize people based on the values of the constitution; based on the ideas of freedom and have an impact on the political conversation.”
In a nutshell, the agency will be using one of the administration's favorite tactics: Redefining terms. There would be favorable rulings for groups promoting "social welfare."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 01, 2013 19 Comments
The IRS Scandal is alive and kicking.  Although it is being drowned out of media attention by the Obamacare and Benghazi scandals. Two important revelations this week related to the targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups. First, Lois Lerner has been caught feeding confidential tax information to the Federal Election Commissions, including the infamous questionaires.  Via Judicial Watch, which obtained the documents, IRS’ Lerner Disclosed Confidential Information about Tax Status of Conservative Groups to FEC:
Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained email exchanges between former Internal Revenue Services (IRS) Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner and enforcement attorneys at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) indicating that the IRS provided detailed, confidential information concerning the tax exempt application status and returns of conservative groups to the FEC in violation of federal law. Included with the email exchanges were IRS questionnaires to a conservative group that contained questions of a hostile nature.... The bulk of the records obtained by Judicial Watch consist of extensive materials from the IRS’ files sent from Lerner to the FEC containing detailed, confidential information about the organizations. These include annual tax returns (Forms 990) and request for exempt recognition forms (Form 1024), Articles of Organization and other corporate documents, and correspondence between the nonprofit organizations and the IRS. Under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, it is a felony for an IRS official to disclose either “return information” or “taxpayer return information,” even to another government agency.
Earlier in the week Eliana Johnson at National review detailed the results of IRS leaks about the National Organization for Marriage to its political opponent, the pro-gay marriage Human Rights Campaitn.  Most outrageous is how the the law protects the identify of the illegal leaker.  Investigation IDs IRS Leaker:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 09, 2013 36 Comments

Great news for the mostly furloughed IRS, now mostly out of sight, out of mind. The new rallying cry across the nation is "Don't Barrycade me, bro!" https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/387977265591504896 (Video added h/t Hot Air)(see our prior post for background): ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 27, 2013 7 Comments

There was joy in liberal blogospheric Mudville when it was reported that terms like "progressive" also were used as a screening mechanism. PROOF! The IRS Scandal was not a scandal! Uh, yes, it was a scandal. Via The Hill, Treasury IG: Liberal groups weren't targeted by IRS like...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 15, 2013 21 Comments

In the wake of intense criticism over the agency's targeting of conservative groups, former and current embattled IRS officials, Steven Miller and Lois Lerner, have reportedly received threats of physical violence. From Sky News: Ousted IRS acting commissioner Steven Miller has received threats, a source told Reuters...

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 06, 2013 44 Comments

Following the unfolding scandal of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of the Tea Party, I keep the following thought in mind: Neither party in Congress can be relied upon to satisfactorily resolve this issue.  They created the IRS, fund the IRS, and oversee the IRS.  All...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 03, 2013 11 Comments

Question Professor, I live in the liberal blue state of California. I really get the sense that liberals are trying to outlaw everything that conservatives find important. It really feels like they look at a menu of conservative issues, values, and hobbies and pick the next thing...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on May 23, 2013 17 Comments

This just in tonight, an IRS source in the agency’s Cincinnati office says that Lois Lerner, one of the officials at the center of the IRS scandal, has been placed on administrative leave (with pay). From National Review Online: Lerner on Thursday afternoon sent an e-mail to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 23, 2013 23 Comments

Lois Lerner famously purported to invoke the 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination yesterday while appearing before Congress. A number of people have reached out to me to ask me to write about it.  Unfortunately, it's outside my area of experience and I don't have time to...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 22, 2013 28 Comments
Some great opening statements. Will embed videos when available. [Hearings now adjourned] The moment when she invokes 5th Amendment: Lois Lerner invokes 5th Amendment https://twitter.com/DavidMDrucker/status/337210860441329666 Lerner full appearance: After she gave an opening statement and defended herself, Lerner refused to testify and was dismissed from the hearing: Lois Lerner leaves hearing room after invoking 5th Amendment

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 20, 2013 28 Comments

Of all the groups singled out by the IRS, True the Vote seemed to get extra special treatment, in a bad way: True the Vote founder Catherine Englebrecht doesn't want to believe the federal government singled her out. But...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 18, 2013 10 Comments

At congressional hearings yesterday, it was revealed that the IRS planted a question at an ABA meeting in order to give Lois Lerner of the IRS the opportunity to get ahead of the pending Inspector General Report and make it seem as if the IRS had voluntarily...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 17, 2013 11 Comments

At congressional hearings today, it was revealed that IRS planted question at ABA mtg disclosing targeting of conservatives via communications between Celia Roady, a tax lawyer who asked the question, and Lois Lerner of the IRS who was on an ABA panel.  Roady has a deep...

Accessibility by WAH