IRS targets tea Party groups regarding non-profit status.

Why is this thread in the elections forum?

 

You don't have a right to do it by illegally claiming tax-exempt status.

Once you step back and look at it logically, I don't see much there for folks to get very upset about.
That won't stop them because, as with much of the rest of your post, actual logic does not seem to enter the argument/fears much at all.

The only bad error in all this that I see is Congress made the law so it charged the IRS with determining the political actions of the organizations it was reviewing for tax-exempt status for the magic 49/51% split. That's dangerous because it makes the IRS care about politics as part of their job, so they then have to ask political questions, which causes some people to get their panties in a wad because they're scared of the big bad IRS they hear about on the AM radio.

That accountants used keywords to help make their jobs easier (especially with furloughs and a hiring freeze) is no surprise to me, neither is the fact they probably didn't see any of those words as "political" in the first place, just parts of names.

damned good question, it has nothing at all do do with any elections

 

Hence the Gestapo reference for a crescendo.

 

It may get tiresome but it is factual

I would like to add my wife's customers who have spent upward of $2.5 Mill so far this year on equipment and software disagree with you

 

I do own a small business and I have had those letters. The problem is not with the software, it's with the idiot humans that don't input the information because, ya know, union members need their smoke breaks.

 

Wooh, whooh, whooh... whooh! Who was illegally claiming tax-exempt status?

 

This article does a pretty good job of explaining things, and also explains why this is in the elections board.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...ng_tea_party_gop_defends_501c3_and_501c4.html
And to be clear, none of the "targeted" groups have been accused of doing anything illegal (as far as I know). But the people at the IRS who everyone now wants to line up in front of a firing squad were tasked with verifying that various groups applying for status as 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations are really in the business of "education" or "social welfare," not electioneering, and therefore legitimately able to claim that status. And it sure is hard for me to believe that the tea party was not political.

Look the whole system stinks - it is designed to let people and corporations get around what little campaign finance law there is and spend unlimited money to influence elections. Congress created a piece of shit system and then left it to the IRS to administer. Both sides abuse it, and both sides were happy when the other guys were being "targeted."

 

Reading comprehension

That's what was being determined - have you not paid attention to what actually happened? Nothing else happened but to try and determine if the applications were legal. After some additional checking, almost all were determined to be legal, but it wasn't cut-and-dry, some investigation needed to be done. Only the criteria used to help highlight the highest priority applications to double-check is under any kind of scrutiny. The best way to get the most bang out of your tax buck, as it were.

All the "Political Targeting" nonsense is just that, nonsense.

 

Sorry Fats, but that is not what this is about. The investigation is the result of conservative groups complaining to their Congressmen that they were getting unfair treatment from the IRS and it turns out their complaints were well founded.

 

I don't see it that way at all. A better, less vague set of rules in the "law" would have easily made it possible for the IRS to do a better job without the perception of targeting. But dude, when you have all those tea party organizations jumping in all at once suddenly claiming they are doing less political stuff and more whatever it is they're somehow allowed to be tax-exempt for, it does seem awful fishy, and should peak your desire to make sure they're legit.It was their job after all.
I somehow think you're normally for much more oversight when people are trying to avoid taxes, but you just get excited to be able to badmouth the president, even though even you can't make the jump logically to his involvement in any way. I also would not be surprised that had they not verified so many organizations were legit, you would have been equally outraged that they did not do their jobs properly (probably made a useless gov't union employee comment while you were at it) - but that's 100% conjecture on my part.


Or, you know what, maybe it is the most evil gubmint thing to ever happen in the history of the world - but you guys have cried wolf so many times, it isn't even worth listening to you any more. It's a waste of time.

 

Me for more oversight? Ha, ha, ha, good one! I am for eliminating the IRS altogether and enacting the FairTax. Short of that I say less oversight and a cleaner tax system.

And this isn’t a case of crying wolf, the IRS has been caught red handed and is in some deep shit right now. You really ought turn on CSPAN and see what’s going on.

 

The first prediction of the Apocalypse is the most effective. Future predictions rapidly lose their credibility.

Plus, these are the same people who blame Obama for gasoline prices, and you really don't want to be listening to people who think that Presidents control gas prices and the weather on the moon's far side.

 

I have, may I suggest you change your hate-colored glasses? Mostly I hear bloated Congressmen rambling on and on about conspiracy theories wasting my tax dollars, ironically. Basically bitching about a perceived problem they themselves created.

Caught red-handed at what, exactly? Verifying political activities of applicants for non-profit status? It's not shocking or scandal-worthy that they'd be doing their damned jobs, to me at least.

And again, your reading comprehension is poor, I said ... so what if it is bad, you've cried wolf so many times previously, I'd happy let you and little red riding hood get eaten by a whole pack of them at this point because I'm so done caring about the slim possibility there are actual wolves anywhere.


Your use of the word "fair" in the non-repeated part of your post is laughable at best.

 

********ing Gestapo did the exact same thing to Jews and socialists.

 

Fats, the TV may be on but you’re obviously not watching the hearings because even Democrats are outraged at IRS abuses. Elijah Cummings, hardly a conservative, tore former IRS head Douglas Shulman a new asshole the other day. Laws were broken and people have perjured themselves and he is pretty pissed off.

 

Well, to be fair, when they caught us in a $1200 mistake on our 2011 forms just last March, I had a hard time not imagining them as a bunch of ********ing Brownshirts they were quite professional and magnanimous.

 

The State of Illinois caught me out on something (I think, I admit I am still confused), and the State is not being anywhere near as nice as is the IRS. So if we can switch this thread to attacking the State of Illinois, I'd be alright with that.

 

I forgot to file for Illinois taxes one year when I was at UIC but still living in PA. I got some really obnoxious letters. I eventually filed and got my $2.35 refund that was left after the 25% penalty for not filing.

The money spent mailing me certified letters cost them more than they got.

 

You are so wrong i dont even know where to start. Because bush and stuff.

 

If they can prove that the prez ordered the IRS to harass his enemies, then I agree. If it's just a few low-level guys trying to do what the law requires of them and doing it in a hamfisted way, then it's small potatoes and I could care less. I'm leaning more towards the second option but I'm open-minded. We'll see.