IRS Admits Targeting Conservative Groups

[Gravitymaster 0]

Quote

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

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.

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. She did not say when they found out.

About 75 groups were inappropriately targeted. None had their tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner said.

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups made available at the time, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

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

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now being run by acting Commissioner Steven Miller.

"I don't think there's any question we were unfairly targeted," said Tom Zawistowski, who until recently was president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, an alliance of tea party groups in the state.

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as its discriminatory treatment of their effort to gain non-profit status. The group first applied for non-profit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said — one month after Election Day.

During the 2012 election, many tea party groups applied for tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

Lerner said the number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity, Lerner said.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words, "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

Tea Party groups weren't buying the idea that the decision to target them was solely the responsibility of low-level IRS workers.

"It is suspicious that the activity of these 'low-level workers' was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it occurred," said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which describes itself as the nation's largest tea party organization. "President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again."

___

Associated Press reporters Alan Fram and Steve Peoples in Boston contributed to this report.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/irs-apologizes-targeting-conservative-groups

No real surprises, here.

[Southern_Man 0]

Gravitymaster

***WASHINGTON (AP) —

Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.

I don't see how this statement makes any sense, in an article where the IRS admits targeting based on political bias. Maybe a bad editing job?

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[kelpdiver 2]

If I were looking for suspicious charities, tea party affiliated ones would certainly be high on my watch list in the 2010-2012 timeframe. Given their fundamentally poor knowledge of government, I'd expect a similar misunderstanding of what acceptable tax exempt activities would be. Let me rephrase- intentional violation of this, as part and parcel with an org that objects to taxation as a core principle.

[Gravitymaster 0]

I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

[kallend 2,026]

Gravitymaster

I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax, consider that taxes are theft, etc?

If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes. Like the Tea Party, or groups with Patriot in their name, for example.

Or the guy who said this: "How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government?"

That was John Boehner.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Kennedy 0]

kallend

***I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax, consider that taxes are theft, etc?

If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes. Like the Tea Party, or groups with Patriot in their name, for example.

Or the guy who said this: "How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government?"

That was John Boehner.

So you'd target groups with political positions that you don't like, that have done nothing against the law. Nice. Even the IRS and the president know that is not ok. Do you realize how far beyond left wing you sound?

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[kelpdiver 2]

Gravitymaster

I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

not a lot of money in Occupy X...were any even registered as 503c's? And they certainly didn't buy TV time or run candidates for office. They didn't virtually nothing but stink up the parks.

[Gravitymaster 0]

Kennedy

******I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax, consider that taxes are theft, etc?

If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes. Like the Tea Party, or groups with Patriot in their name, for example.

Or the guy who said this: "How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government?"

That was John Boehner.

So you'd target groups with political positions that you don't like, that have done nothing against the law. Nice. Even the IRS and the president know that is not ok. Do you realize how far beyond left wing you sound?

Most on the far left are just one step away from becoming fascists.

[Gravitymaster 0]

You clearly don't understand the problem. It normally takes about 90 days to have tax exempt status approved by the IRS. There were conservative groups that had their staus approval delayed for as long as 2 1/2 years.

Quote

Zawistowski's group was among many conservative organizations that battled the IRS over what they saw as its discriminatory treatment of their effort to gain non-profit status. The group first applied for non-profit status in June 2009, and it was finally granted on Dec. 7, 2012, he said — one month after Election Day.

Delayed until right after the election.

In addition, they were asked to provide documentation such as their donor lists which are not required, and to answer questions that were not appropriate for this type of filing.
http://c0391070.cdn2.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/pdf/irs-questions-aclj-tea-party-clients.pdf

[lawrocket 3]

kallend

***I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax

Come to think of it, yes. They argue that those with large sums of money should pay taxes and not them. OWS ended up with massive funding.

[Reply]If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes.

[lawrocket 3]

kelpdiver

***I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

not a lot of money in Occupy X...were any even registered as 503c's? And they certainly didn't buy TV time or run candidates for office. They didn't virtually nothing but stink up the parks.

They had a lot of money for food and electricity and bail. Look at how manu people they fed while trying to keep the homeless from getting the food.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Andy9o8 2]

Look, they said they were sorry. And love means never having to say you're sorry.

[kallend 2,026]

Kennedy

******I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax, consider that taxes are theft, etc?

If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes. Like the Tea Party, or groups with Patriot in their name, for example.

Or the guy who said this: "How much more money do we want to steal from the American people to fund more government?"

That was John Boehner.

So you'd target groups with political positions that you don't like, that have done nothing against the law. Nice. Even the IRS and the president know that is not ok. Do you realize how far beyond left wing you sound?

Incorrect. I'd target groups whose position is that taxes are theft.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 2,026]

lawrocket

******I wonder how many groups with "Occupy"in their name were targeted?

Why, do groups with "Occupy" in their name speak out vociferously against having to pay tax

Come to think of it, yes. They argue that those with large sums of money should pay taxes and not them. OWS ended up with massive funding.

[Reply]If I were in the IRS the groups I'd target would be the ones that clearly object to paying taxes.

[Kennedy 0]

What about groups who think their taxes are theft because people with more than them aren't taxed more?

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[kallend 2,026]

Kennedy

What about groups who think their taxes are theft because people with more than them aren't taxed more?

Inappropriate tax laws written for the benefit of the wealthy, and theft, are very different things.

Sorry you can't understand that.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[wmw999 2,439]

Regardless, this was a really, really, stupid thing for an IRS office to have done. In these politically-charged times, it's up to supervisors to make sure that an idea that's this goat-fuck stupid is quashed.

The official reason sounds as unsophisticated and disingenuous as it is.

If there's a valid reason to target these organizations, there are others that aren't tea-party etc. organizations that can fit in a classification.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Southern_Man 0]

wmw999

If there's a valid reason to target these organizations, there are others that aren't tea-party etc. organizations that can fit in a classification.

Wendy P.

Hell, having been involved in multiple 501(c)(3) organizations there is pretty much no scrutiny of the applications. I'm sure a lot of them could do with a more careful vetting. But yeah, this was stupid.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"