14 thoughts on “The IRS Scandal(s)”

  1. Not on the list: “The TEA Party went out of there way to make themselves IRS targets.”

    Then again, maybe it was Jim’s own idea, or his trial balloon here was busted so easily, no one else decided to carry that foolish notion forward.

    1. I’d love to see a refutation of the fact that these groups didn’t actually need to apply for 501c4 status. I haven’t seen one; have you?

      1. If a group wants to start a book club, they don’t have to register with the IRS. If they’re going to raise money, they do. The IRS has a set of categories for non-profit organizations, most of them under Section 501 of the tax code. Each category has its own set of permissions and restrictions. The category that organizations like the Tea Party and also leftist political groups belonged to was Section 504(c)(4).

        1. The clause the morons are latching on is that you don’t need to file immediately.

          This allows the deliberately deceptive to say with a straight face “They didn’t need to file!”. Because they know (and mean) that they didn’t need to file yet.

          But, of course, even that fails. Because several orgs that filed essentially the same month as being founded are getting “You’ve been operating illegally!” … because the application hasn’t been approved in the intervening two years.

          So… you don’t -need- to apply -immediately-. But you’d better, because the highly skilled workers can’t approve anything not-named the “Barack H. Obama Foundation” in less than two years. (That one, of course, sailed through in 30 days and was back-dated three years for Malik’s money laundering op.)

          1. Actually, they didn’t have to get permission first. But every entity has to report income for possible taxes. If they reported the income and self-claimed 501c4 status, then Lois’s EO department targeted them. She says so in her own newsletter, which also claims it was part of her yearly workplan. None of this is in dispute and can be found on the IRS website.

            Apparently Jim doesn’t think you ever need to file income tax forms. Considering how many WH employees owe back taxes, maybe that’s just how socialist roll in during the Obama Administration.

  2. Of course they’re lies and they work. They don’t need to prove a single lie because that is not their purpose. It’s just a smoke screen so they can get out of the line of fire. They will do as little as possible to change,but just enough to avoid repercussions.

    It works. We’re suckers for letting it.

  3. But the notion that the targeting was directed by low-level employees Cincinnati has been refuted on multiple fronts. A number of conservative groups that asked about the status of their applications, for example, were told that the Cincinnati office was awaiting guidance from officials in Washington, D.C.

    This is a non-sequiter, not a refutation. Once applications were inappropriately targeted, they were processed with input from various places, including D.C. That doesn’t mean that D.C. had anything to do with the initial decision to subject those applications to extra scrutiny. There is plenty of evidence, however, of higher-ups in the IRS ordering the Cincinnati office to cut it out.

    Jay Carney told reporters last month that the IRS targeting “stopped in May of 2012.” Apparently not. After more than three years, some conservative groups are still awaiting a decision on their applications for non-profit status.

    Again, not a refutation. Putting an end to targeting doesn’t immediately clean out the application queue, it only means that new applications are not singled out for more in-depth scrutiny based on illegitimate criteria.

    Liberal groups were also targeted

    That seems to be true:

    Non-conservative advocacy groups given special scrutiny by the IRS in or after 2010 included the Coffee Party USA, the alternative to the Tea Party movement that got a bunch of press in 2010, as well as such explicitly progressive groups as the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada; Rebuild the Dream, founded by former Obama administration official Van Jones; and Progressives United Inc., which was founded by former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold.

    Also included in the special scrutiny were Progress Texas and Progress Missouri Inc.; Tie the Knot, which sells bow ties to raise money to promote same-sex marriage; and ProgressNow, which describes itself as “a year-round never-ending progressive campaign.”

    The targeting also rolled up centrist groups, such as the Across the Aisle Foundation — the educational and cultural arm of No Labels, which worked to build momentum for an independent ticket for the presidency — and politically neutral ones, such as The East Hampton Group for Good Government Inc., formed to encourage better leadership and management of the New York vacation town, and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

    All of these groups were flagged by the IRS along with the Tea Party class of groups as “potential political cases” and were part of the 31 percent of groups given special scrutiny that were not clearly conservative.

    1. There is plenty of evidence, however, of higher-ups in the IRS ordering the Cincinnati office to cut it out.

      Jim, you’re always good for a hoot. Are you sure it wasn’t, “Hey guys, you’re being too obvious. Cut it out.”

  4. A flat tax with no exemptions for anyone would help. But all those IRS bureaucrats stealing from the taxpayer will lose their feeding trough

  5. I think the IRS agents should have even more $6000 hotel room vacations. I also think the NSA should put cameras in the toilets of law abiding American citizens so that our bowel movements are monitored. It’s for the health of our children.

  6. Why wouldn’t the IRS go after the Tea Party for tax evasion? It is widely known the detest paying taxes, especially their fair share.

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