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“IRS watchdog: Senior IRS officials knew in 2011 tea parties’ tax-exempt status being targeted”

FOX/AP:

Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general’s report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.

[…]

The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.

But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog’s report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with “Tea Party,” `’Patriot” or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.

[…]

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.

Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS’ Rulings and Agreements office “held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.”

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement,” the report says.

Another scandal we need to keep shining the light on.
Incidentally, one significant difference between progressives and conservatives?  It doesn’t matter to me one bit if Bushie Republicans or Democrats were responsible for this harassment.  Notes William Jacobson:
The Democrats and media demonized the Tea Party and Homeland Security painted smaller government groups as potential threats, and guess who gets targeted by the IRS.
Sure.  The inference is an easy one to draw. But don’t be too hasty, I’d caution, because ironically — or perhaps better, sadly — I can’t even say for certain that progressives or Democrats were the culprits here, so deep is the ruling class hatred for limited government conservatism.   I mean, if we found out Karl Rove was behind all this, would we be terribly shocked at this point?
I know I wouldn’t.   But I also know that I want to know, regardless of who gets “harmed politically.”
(h/t newrouter)

38 Replies to ““IRS watchdog: Senior IRS officials knew in 2011 tea parties’ tax-exempt status being targeted””

  1. newrouter says:

    will they do something about it is another matter see: obamacare

    Cantor: House Will Investigate IRS for Targeting Tea Party Groups

  2. sdferr says:

    One might draw lines of comparison with Korematsu in this case.

    But indeed, it simply does not matter what party anyone found to be applying the instrumentalities of government to hound a non-treasonous political entity may happen to hold to: those persons need to be prosecuted with the full weight of the law here, be they Democrat or Republican makes no matter.

  3. newrouter says:

    “Shulman has also worked in government, first as Senior Policy Advisor and later as Chief of Staff for the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 1996 to 1997. Co-chaired by Congressman Rob Portman (R-Oh.) and Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Ne.), the bi-partisan commission was instituted to conduct a major restructuring of the IRS, and Shulman led the analysis of all the major components of the restructuring effort. He also directed the House and Senate legislative strategy, which culminated in the passage of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act in July 1998.”

    link

  4. newrouter says:

    mr shulman gave $200 to rob portman and $500 to the dnc

    page 31

    pdf link

  5. newrouter says:

    mr shulman has very good “ruining” class bona fides

  6. Neo says:

    Article 2

    Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon Barack H Obama, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

    This conduct has included one or more of the following:

    1. He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

  7. geoffb says:

    The IRS: First they Came for the Tea Partiers, Then They Came for the Jews’

  8. JHoward says:

    You mean this IRS?

    Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS

    When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form.

    The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

    As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.

    So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information?

    Simply put, there is no way for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate without such an invasive reporting scheme. Every January, health insurance companies across America will send out tax documents to each insured individual. This tax document—a copy of which will be furnished to the IRS—must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare.

    This new tax information document must, at a minimum, contain: the name and health insurance identification number of the taxpayer; the name and tax identification number of the health insurance company; the number of months the taxpayer was covered by this insurance plan; and whether or not the plan was purchased in one of Obamacare’s “exchanges.”

    This will involve millions of new tax documents landing in mailboxes across America every January, along with the usual raft of W-2s, 1099s, and 1098s. At tax time, the 140 million families who file a tax return will have to get acquainted with a brand new tax filing form. Six million of these families will end up paying Obamacare’s individual mandate non-compliance tax penalty.

  9. JHoward says:

    In communications to my congresspersons lately I’ve rediscovered the utility of the word outrage.

    As in I demand illegalities be redressed, especially those involving agencies impinging my rights so as to render me their subservient and various of my property no longer mine.

    That is all.

  10. sdferr says:

    Ways and Means Committee to IRS: “You’re fucked!” For starters.

    *** The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has thrown down an investigative gauntlet to the Internal Revenue Service, demanding that the agency hand over by next Wednesday every communication in its records that includes the words “tea party,” “patriot” or “conservative.”

    The committee is also demanding of the IRS that by next Wednesday it provide the committee with the names and titles of all individuals who were involved in targeting conservative non-profit groups for more intensive review of their applications for non-profit status. ***

  11. Pablo says:

    3/8/12 The I.R.S. Does Its Job

    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.

    “That Emmanuel Goldstein is a rat bastard…”

  12. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You know who this benefits?

    Mitt Romney Neil Boortz!

  13. newrouter says:

    the rove stuff is right as far as bushtards are concerned. a hey to rob portman

  14. newrouter says:

    funny how mr shulman got an ok from mr reid

  15. John Bradley says:

    *** The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has thrown down an investigative gauntlet to the Internal Revenue Service, demanding that the agency hand over by next Wednesday every communication in its records that includes the words “tea party,” “patriot” or “conservative.”

    The House GOP is just pissed that the IRS is stepping on their turf. Crushing the TEA Party? That’s Boehner’s job!

  16. newrouter says:

    “rob us” portman sucks rove’s “ruining class” member. tar, feathers no. let down on “american idol” yes. for the liv vote

  17. LBascom says:

    Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS

    I heard about this! Let’s see, where was it…?

    Oh yeah.

    Revelation 13:17

    so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

    Of course, give a government bureaucracy something, and the results are predictable.

    Revelation 16:2
    The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

  18. bh says:

    Happy Saturday evening, all.

    Is this the greatest punk ska cover of them all? I’m going with a tentative yes.

  19. bh says:

    And here we find a version somewhere between 311 and a lounge band. Kinda like it, to be honest.

  20. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Hey BH, how are ya? Back to clutter flooding?

    I got a new backyard toy to play with today. So far I’ve only made tasty beef kabobs on it. I was going to make tasty chicken bacon ranch Quesadeas like you used to see on TV ads for Chilis, but I saw the kabobs while I was looking for chicken and they looked like they would be tastier. And besides, Chilis might find out that I deconstructed their recipe and use their corporate leverage to pass a law preventing home “chef’s” from saying shit, I could make that after seeing a TV commercial for tasty prepackaged reheated food served in a family friendly atmosphere. Perhaps by requiring everybody to get a cooking certificate from a government certified school.

    Or would that be giving them ideas?

  21. bh says:

    A new grill? Sweet.

    Hmmm… these are tricky questions you raise.

    After going through the 2005 food code, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to cook regardless. I’m also fairly certain I’m also in violation by letting you know this. May I recommend pretending that you’re creating transgressive art instead?

  22. Ernst Schreiber says:

    God knows, in the theater of the absurd that is today’s United States of America, it won’t be long before some agency starts running PSAs telling people that they should join their children for breakfast lunch and supper at the public schools —because the food is better for you.

  23. Ernst Schreiber says:

    But yeah, the grill is sweet. Discontinued model on clearance. Needed a new charcoal kettle anyways. My old one is 15 years old and needed a rebuild –new legs, new grates, that sort of thing. The cart should be a more stable, and the wife will appreciate me not stealing all her outdoor tables off the patio every time I decide to go charcoal instead of propane.

    Because I like to organize horizontally instead of vertically.

  24. Ernst Schreiber says:

    After going through the 2005 food code, I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to cook regardless. I’m also fairly certain I’m also in violation by letting you know this. May I recommend pretending that you’re creating transgressive art instead?

    Maybe I should organize and host a neighborhood cookout as an act of disobedience.

    Or would that get the FDA sturmtruppen called out?

  25. Neo says:

    Did IRS commissioner Doug Shulman, a Bush appointee, know about the targeting of Tea Party groups ? It has been reported that IRS chief counsel, William J. Wilkins, an Obama appointee, not only knew, but met with the group performing the inquiry. Are we to believe that these guys never talked, or that the chief counsel wasrunning his own “game on the side” ?
    If Shulman didn’t know, then this scandal will take on a partisan quality, if he knew it takes a diabolic quality.

  26. Neo says:

    Followup:
    While Shulman was a Bush appointee, according to the FEC has given to just the DNC. Bush made a truly “non-political” decision to appoint someone to a non-political post which IRS appointees are supposed to be, but your true politics is where you spend your dimes. Schulman is a Democrat donor.

  27. There is no such thing as non-political decisionmaking in government. When you (I’m using the impersonal “you,” in case anyone wonders) demand more and bigger government you get more politics in your everyday life.

    And then you biiiiiitch and whiiiiiine about politics, as if you had nothing to do with inflicting this plague on yourself. “There is no justice” is heard all across the land, in clear contradiction of the observable reality.

    But then, the demand for more and bigger government is itself in direct contradiction of observable reality.

  28. Darleen says:

    Did anyone else catch this from the post?

    he was told that groups with “Tea Party,” `’Patriot” or “9/12 Project”

    So the IRS was going after Glen Beck & friends, too.

  29. I wonder if they would have flagged “outlaw.”

    “Armadillo” would have been too obvious though.

  30. leigh says:

    I’m watching FNS and Dennis Kucinich is a guest. He looks remarkably like Renfield.

  31. happyfeet says:

    “It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review and I think that it’s very disappointing that the president hasn’t personally condemned this and spoken out,” she told CNN’s Candy Crowley.

    lobsterpot bimbo is *easily* the leastest self-aware senatewhore this side of meghan’s coward daddy

  32. leigh says:

    Collins is retiring isn’t she? Her speech is kind of impaired, like she has Parkinson’s.

  33. happyfeet says:

    she been there an obscenely long time

    wasted her whole goddamn life being a senatewhore practically

  34. […] at Protein Wisdom, in a post by Jeff Goldstein on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, commentator LBascom was put in mind of […]

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