Tea Partiers harassed by IRS?

[Sheilbh]

AP Exclusive: Watchdog report says senior IRS officials knew tea party groups targeted in 2011

WASHINGTON — 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 IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. 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 9-12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.

Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," 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.

While this was happening, several committees in Congress were writing numerous letters IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to express concern because tea party groups were complaining of IRS harassment.

In Shulman's responses, he did not acknowledge targeting of tea party groups. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.

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

The portion of the draft report reviewed by the AP does not say whether Shulman or anyone else in the Obama administration outside the IRS was informed of the targeting. It is standard procedure for agency heads to consult with staff before responding to congressional inquiries, but it is unclear how much information Shulman sought.

The IRS has not said when Shulman found out that Tea Party groups were targeted.

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

The IRS said in a statement Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG's report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.

"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "The timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail."

Lerner's position is three levels below the commissioner.

"The timeline supports what the IRS acknowledged on Friday that mistakes were made," the statement continued. "There were not partisan reasons behind this."

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight subcommittee, said the report "raises serious questions as to who at IRS, Treasury and in the administration knew about this, why this practice was allowed to continue for as long as it did, and how widespread it was."

"This timeline reveals at least two extremely unethical actions by the IRS. One, as early as 2010, they targeted groups for political purposes. Two, they willfully and knowingly lied to Congress for years despite being aware that Congress was investigating this practice," Boustany said.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power. Going after organizations for referencing the Bill of Rights or expressing the intent to make this country a better place is repugnant," Boustany added. "There is no excuse for this behavior."

Several congressional committees have promised investigations, including the Ways and Means Committee, which plans to hold a hearing.

"The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

The group Tea Party Patriots said the revelation was proof that the IRS had lied to Congress and the public when Schulman said there had been no targeting of tea party groups.

"We must know how many more lies they have been telling and how high up the chain the cover-up goes," Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the group Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement Saturday.

"It appears the IRS committed crimes and violated our ability to exercise our First Amendment right to free speech. A simple apology is not sufficient reparation for violating the constitutional rights of United States citizens. Therefore, Tea Party Patriots rejects the apology from the Internal Revenue Service," Martin said. "We are, however, encouraged to hear that Congress plans to investigate. Those responsible must be held accountable and resign or be terminated for their actions."

On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration expected the inspector general to conduct a thorough investigation, but he brushed aside calls for the White House itself to investigate.

Many conservative groups complained during the 2012 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 have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.

There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections — conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group Crossroads GPS and the liberal Moveon.org.

These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for 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.

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 on Friday 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.

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 told the AP on Friday. "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.

Unlike Benghazi, this has the whiff of scandal about it. I think the Tea Party guy is ahead of himself in saying there's a cover-up and asking how far it goes but I think there needs to be at least a serious investigation into this.

[CountDeMoney]

We've already discussed this, man.
http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,13.msg579511/topicseen.html#msg579511


And there's nothing to investigate.

[Neil]

Putting the IRS on your political enemies is well-established procedure for US presidents.  And it's not like the Tea Party isn't full of people who love evading taxes.  Isn't that sort of thing, other than guns, what the militia movement's all about?

[merithyn]

I'm amazed that it took so long for this to hit Languish. It looks pretty damning for the IRS so far.

[CountDeMoney]

It looks pretty damning for the IRS so far.

No, it doesn't.

You have an avalanche of applications for tax exemption for a bunch of tax-hating crackers that want to claim "social welfare" status.  It's called due fucking diligence.

[Scipio]

I'm amazed that it took so long for this to hit Languish. It looks pretty damning for the IRS so far.

Not if you're Seedy.  Can't wait for President Rand Paul to start auditing Planned Parenthood.

[CountDeMoney]

Can't wait for President Rand Paul to start auditing Planned Parenthood.

There's a substantial and well-demarcated line between Planned Parenthood, Inc. and The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Black Person's Uterus Hater.

[Sheilbh]

You have an avalanche of applications for tax exemption for a bunch of tax-hating crackers that want to claim "social welfare" status.  It's called due fucking diligence.

So investigate it. See if they're applying due diligence equally. If so then no worries, but is it that necessary? If not then why was it applied more to right-wing groups?

[CountDeMoney]

You have an avalanche of applications for tax exemption for a bunch of tax-hating crackers that want to claim "social welfare" status.  It's called due fucking diligence.

So investigate it. See if they're applying due diligence equally. If so then no worries, but is it that necessary? If not then why was it applied more to right-wing groups?

501c4 applications doubled between 2010 and 2012 due to Citizens United; sorry, but "sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires"--which is common practice for follow-up applications that aren't explanatory enough--isn't harassment, no matter how much anti-government noodleheads bitch.  Particularly when none of them have been rejected.

Next time fill in all the boxes completely and clearly, Cletus, and you won't get "lengthy, intrusive questionnaires" to follow up your application written in crayon on the back of the church bulletin.

Nothing to see here, move along.

[Razgovory]

Think of it as profiling.  Tea Party is cool with that.

[Martinus]

The IRS targeting people who subscribe to the political message of refusing to pay taxes? Outrageous!

That would be like the police profiling NAMBLA activists for the possession of child porn!

[Berkut]

If the intent of investigation is to make sure that a group that is supposed to be primarily interested in "social welfare" is actually doing social welfare rather than political actvity, then targetted for further review groups who have specifically political messages like "Tea Party" in their name seems like a rather obvious thing to do.

[Admiral Yi]

501c4 applications doubled between 2010 and 2012 due to Citizens United; sorry, but "sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires"--which is common practice for follow-up applications that aren't explanatory enough--isn't harassment, no matter how much anti-government noodleheads bitch.  Particularly when none of them have been rejected.

Next time fill in all the boxes completely and clearly, Cletus, and you won't get "lengthy, intrusive questionnaires" to follow up your application written in crayon on the back of the church bulletin.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Are you calling the IRS inspector general a liar or the AP reporter?

[CountDeMoney]

Are you calling the IRS inspector general a liar or the AP reporter?

I'm saying the only thing the IRS can be accused of in this situation is excessive apologizing to make up for organizational low self-esteem, which one expects from the most universally despised organ of the Federal government, with the notable exception of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

It's unfortunate the IRS has to feel the need to apologize for this, but only in an overly politicized atmosphere where "talking points" can equate "cover up" for frothing right wingnutters can "additional scrutiny" of an application for tax exemption equal "targeting".

[OttoVonBismarck]

The IRS admitted it was inappropriate to target only specifically political groups of a certain political bent. Since Presidents in the past have at times abused the IRS to punish political opponents it should come as no surprise there are internal guidelines against such things. So there's really no debate about that, the IRS did wrong. If it was just over-reach by some bureaucrats that the Inspector General has found and that will be dealt with, there's no problem. If the IRS Commissioner has lied about knowing about it (as it appears he has) he probably needs to lose his job for lying.

It's also worth looking into whether anyone associated with President Obama's campaign had anything to do with this heightened scrutiny. I honestly doubt that it was White House driven or directed, but it's something that out of due diligence needs to be investigated. If it is found to be so, you're basically talking Watergate style improper activity FWIW.