General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDO WE REALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT THE "IRS" ???
the "irs scandal" better check facts
fact: government operates in spite of who is in charge(meaning elected official's). what one must realize is that when a new person is elected he or she doesn't really have a clue of how many facets (dept's. etc) operate.the other thing is he or she doesn't realize the dept. will most likely exist long after they leave! For instance I once worked at a public works dept that bought all their hand tools from a local hardware store. Now it wasn't the only hardware store in town,nor was it the cheapest. the week before the new budget came into effect they sold a hand shovel for $5.99 ;I was instructed to go down and buy a dozen shovels. when I see the new price of $11.99 I returned and was told by my boss to go back and get them. I said why when the mammoth mart was selling the same brand shovel for $5.99 and if I bought a dozen we could get them for $5.25! the answer was we have to buy local! my response was what do we do if we were on a job and we broke one? you bought one at nearest location of job and got reimbursed for your receipt!well guess what I told all the public work employees at the convention that year! wanna bet your town now purchases at cheapest place! I have a feeling something similar to this took place in the "irs"-think about it a corporation is a human? people do adapt!
I would not be surprised if some concerned citizen who works for the "irs" had a conscience and tried to stop some of these political groups who were sliding in as a tax exempt entity !
kimbutgar
(21,188 posts)zerosumgame0005
(207 posts)which is what the fRight hates them so much
dkf
(37,305 posts)The IG said employees are supposed to examine based on the activities of the organization, not in their name and certainly not on their positions. The law is blind to POV or it should be.
If the IRS allows this to happen then it is a failure to supervise and lack of proper education.
The funny thing is government regulation has made continuing education necessary for many businesses but seems to do none of its own.
zerosumgame0005
(207 posts)that bagger groups were NOT the only ones scrutinized, and NONE of them had their application denied. Now if they refused to continue the process that is their issue with providing the documentation requested, not the IRS.
dkf
(37,305 posts)If we make it legal to add special scrutiny for somewhat arbitrary reasons based on points of view do you not see where that leads? You have now turned every Government institution into a powerful way to harass the segment of the populace someone powerful wishes to make miserable.
It can be used at all levels of government by whoever happens to be in charge.
Now it's them but next time maybe it's us.
And the IG has already admitted what the special screens were.
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)...especially when it comes to tools. And most of my family and most of the people I know would rather "shop local" (or even shop online) than save a few pennies on imported stuff from a big-box understaffed minimum wage place. Going out of your way to buy the cheapest item at the cheapest price is one reason US manufacturing and retailers are so hollowed out over the last three decades or so. And one reasons that our households are full of disposable crap that can barely perform the functions they were bought for before breaking.
Walmarts and landfills and minimum wage jobs from sea to shining sea are the result, and little else.
Not to disagree with your actual point about the continuity of government regardless of the guy in charge, but the price-shopping example isn't a very good one.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)First, the tax law expressly permits political organizations to be tax exempt. Political parties are tax-exempt, but organizations that engage in various political activities but not to the extent that they would qualify for tax exemption as a political party are also qualified to receive tax exemption. DLC is a tax-exempt (c)4 org. There's been a whole lot of wanton ignorance on DU about this issue. The real issue is whether these groups were closeted party campaign groups that were applying for 501(c)4 status so as to hide the names of campaign donors, as far as I can tell.
What occurred was nakedly political in effect. Under the law a lot of these groups had the right to sue the IRS. Apparently they didn't because they feared additional targeting.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/141499802/Full-text-The-IG-s-54-page-IRS-tax-scandal-report
It's pretty bad. Saying that none of the cases was denied belies the point - in the sample the IG selected, all the Tea Party type apps were held for further processing. However, that processing was not done in anything close to a timely fashion.
The IG found that the IRS delays were so extreme as to give multiple organizations the right to sue the IRS:
Your theory that it was just a few people with "consciences" doesn't wash, because the biggest part of the delay was that the Technical Unit just sat on them. Okay, so there were multiple roadblocks.
It sounds like there is an attempt to blame a few people unfairly. Management in the Determinations Unit told the individual workers to pull out the "Tea Party" cases. They didn't do it themselves. Then management in the Determinations Unit requested help from the Technical unit in DC, and didn't get it for over a year.
I would hate to see low-level employees blamed for this.
There's a whole lot of other problems detailed in the report, including requests for information that would be made public if the app were granted, but that the law requires not be made public.