Tea Party Patriot 9/12 Triggered Unusual IRS Scrutiny

Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. The use of the nations tax agency to target groups for audit and review on the basis of political leanings is an egregious abuse of power.  Our laws either apply equally to all citizens and citizen groups regardless of political leanings or we have become nothing more than a banana republic said Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens late last week following the Internal Revenue Services admission it was targeting groups for audits on the basis of their tea party affiliation.   Internal Revenue Service agents who singled out for extra scrutiny 501.c.4 and 501.c.3 applications from groups with Tea Party" in their name also screened organizations that criticized government spending and tax policy or said they were devoted to making America a better place to live" Reuters and The Wall Street Journal write. The criteria which evolved from 2010 to 2012 as IRS field office staff sifted through thousands of applications from entities seeking nonprofit status were detailed in an investigative report by the Treasury Departments inspector general for tax administration. The report is due to be made public this week but has been reviewed by some media outlets. Congressional investigation into IRS targeting of Tea Party This is beyond Nixonian in its flagrant disregard for the rule of law as it was intended to stifle dissent and now there must be accountability. We know the Democrat-controlled Senate will not be bothered to inquire what happened but the House of Representatives can and should use its power to subpoena witnesses to get to the bottom of this scandal said the Americans for Limited Governments Mehrens. Since Fridays apology by Lois Lerner head of the IRS office that oversees tax-exempt organizations over the agencys examination of conservative groups Republicans in Congress have stepped up calls for a deeper inquiry and plan to hold hearings on the matter The New York Times and Bloomberg report. According to the inspector generals findings Ms. Lerner knew in June 2011 that key words such as Tea Party" Patriot" and 9/12″ in the name of organizations applying for tax-exempt status triggered closer scrutiny. GOP lawmakers stepped up their criticism on Sunday:

The bottom line is IRS officials used key words to go after conservatives. There has to be accountability for the people who did it. And quite frankly…theres got to be accountability for people who were telling lies about it being done said Cong. Darrell Issa (R-CA) Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press.

Some Democrats also voiced criticism:

Im concerned about that. Somebody made the decision that they would give extra scrutiny to this particular group. And I think we have to understand why said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) also on NBC.

The IRS said over the weekend it is in the process of independently confirming the dates mentioned on the timeline of events contained in the inspector general report but we believe the inspector generals timeline is correct. The IRS said the report supports its view that its missteps werent politically motivated and were limited to lower-level workers. The IRS also said the report reflects that IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of a March 2012 hearing where Mr. Shulman denied any targeting of conservative groups. Mr. Shulman who no longer works for the IRS declined to comment. The new details suggest that agency workers were examining statements in applications for tax-exempt status to determine whether groups had political leanings. Tax-exempt social-welfare groups organized under section 501.c.4 of the Internal Revenue Code are allowed to engage in some political activity but the primary focus of their efforts must remain promoting social welfare. That social-welfare activity can include lobbying and advocating for issues and legislation but not outright political-campaign activity. But some of the rules leave room for IRS officials to make judgment calls and probe individual groups for further information. Organizing as such a group is desirable not just because such entities typically dont have to pay taxes but also because they generally dont have to identify their donors. IRS officials said last week that the focused review of conservative groups was initiated by lower-level civil servants in the IRS Cincinnati office not by political appointees in Washington and that it wasnt politically motivated. They say it stemmed from a misguided effort to centralize review of a growing number of applications for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status. But questions continued to swirl about the failure of IRS officials to disclose the problems until the inspector generals report was about to become public. The timeline contained in the draft report indicates that IRS scrutiny of tea-party and other conservative groups began as early as 2010 and came to the attention of Ms. Lerner the head of the tax-exempt-organizations division at least by the following year. According to the report by June 2011 some IRS specialists were probing applications using the following criteria:

Issues include government spending government debt or taxes; education of the public by advocacy-lobbying to make America a better place to live; statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.