The Washington Post reports that Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) will file suit today against the Internal Revenue Service’s regulations governing what organizations qualify for tax exempt status. Current law says the organizations must engage “exclusively” in social welfare activities, but IRS tax code requires only that they are “primarily engaged” in such purposes. That discrepancy has […]
Tag Archives | IRS
IG Finds Improper Access and Disclosure of Private Tax Records
Accounting Today reports: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into findings from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that the confidential tax records of political donors or candidates have been inappropriately accessed or disclosed in several instances since 2006 and asking why the Justice Department has […]
IRS Chief Confirms Targeting of Tea Party Groups
Do recent reports and releases show that “progressive” groups received the same level of scrutiny as “Tea Party” and other conservative groups? No. CNN reports: The acting head of the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that evidence so far shows only conservative groups underwent extra scrutiny cited by an inspector general’s disclosure of the agency’s […]
IRS Scandal Still a Scandal (But Still Not “Watergate”)
New revelations about the conduct of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials continues to trickle out. Paul Caron’s latest compilation is here. Some of these revelations are significant, but none of them contradict the account of the Inspector General’s report. Recently disclosed documents show that some BOLO (“Be on the Lookout”) documents called on IRS officials […]
Political Contributions by Government Lawyers
Paul Caron notes data gathered by Robert Anderson showing that lawyers working for various federal agencies were far more likely to contribute to Democrats than to Republicans in the 2012 election cycle. in some agencies the disparity is quite extreme — much like what one finds on many college campuses. This is not particularly surprising […]
A Month of IRS Scandal
As he has for the past 30 days, Paul Caron rounds up the latest on the IRS scandal. Among the key developments are claims by IRS employees in the Cincinnati office suggesting D.C. involvement in the targeting of conservative groups and renewed allegations that an IRS employee released confidential tax information of a conservative group. […]
Huffington Post Live Discussion on the IRS and Political Profiling
Today between 4:30 and 5 PM, I will be participating in a Huffington Post Live discussion on the use of political profiling by the IRS. You can watch it live here. I will also be drawing connections between this issue and the question of racial profiling, a parallel I discussed in this post. UPDATE: You […]
Political Profiling and Racial Profiling
Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo has an interesting article arguing that conservatives are right to complain about the IRS’ use of political profiling, but argues that they should use the same reasoning to rethink their support for racial profiling in law enforcement. As he points out the IRS justification for political profiling is very similar to […]
IRS Attorney to Take the Fifth
Via John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum comes news that Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who oversees the tax-exempt office and who first disclosed her office’s targeting of Tea Party groups in response to a planted question at an ABA conference, will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to testify […]
IRS Disclosure Was Planted
From the moment of the initial disclosure of IRS targeting of conservative groups, observers have speculated about the timing and location of the disclosure. Could this really have been an unplanned, impromptu remark? No. In fact, the question was planted and Lois Lerner’s statement was pre-planned. As additional information trickles it out, it is also […]
Overreaching on the IRS Scandal
The targeting of Tea Party and other right-leaning groups by the IRS is a major scandal. Yet, as Walter Olson notes, some of the Administration’s critics have gone a bit overboard trying to tie the scandal to the White House. It’s one thing to note the lopsided political contributions of IRS employees, including those in […]
No, the IRS Is Not an “Independent Agency”
Responding to press questions about the IRS scandal, White House spokesperson Jay Carney claimed that the IRS is an “independent agency.” At the Federalist Society’s new Executive Branch Review blog, former Assistant Attorney General Eileen O’Connor, who oversaw the Justice Department’s Tax Division, explains that Carney was quite wrong on this point. Most Executive Branch […]
President Calls IRS Conduct “Inexcusable”
President Obama harshly condemned the apparent politicization of the IRS today and announced the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller. From the Washington Post: In a furious statement at the White House, Obama said the IRS’s actions were “inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I’m angry about it.” He […]
Justice Launches Criminal Investigation into IRS
The Washington Post and New York Times report that Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a criminal investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups. UPDATE: Via the Huffington Post, here’s a link to the Inspector General’s report on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. Rick Hasen has already flagged some choice quotes.
The Media Push for IRS Action Against Pro-Israel Groups
In addition to the IRS’s particular interest in right-wing groups focussed on domestic policy, it has taken an unusual interest in right-wing pro-Israel groups. (I am friends with the leader of the group written about in the link.) One major question raised by the IRS scandal is where these ideas came from. At least as […]