BOMBSHELL REPORT: IRS Targeted ‘Icky’ Conservative Groups

[Valin]

Daily Caller

Patrick Howley

12/22/14

 

Top IRS officials specifically targeted tea party groups and misled the public about its secret political targeting program led by ex-official Lois Lerner, according to a bombshell new congressional report.

 

The Daily Caller has obtained an advance copy of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report set to be released Tuesday morning that definitively proves malicious intent by the IRS to improperly block conservative groups that an IRS adviser deemed “icky.” (That’s right. “Icky.”)

 

“The Committee has identified eight senior leaders who were in a position to prevent or to stop the IRS’s targeting of conservative applicants,” the Oversight report states. “Each of these leaders could have and should have done more to prevent the IRS’s targeting of conservative tax-exempt applicants.”

 

Here are six major takeaways from the report:

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

Report: IRS 'fundamentally transformed' by Obamacare, Tea Party targeting

Mark Tapscott

December 22, 2014

 

Targeting conservative and Tea Party nonprofit applicants for harassment during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns was the most obvious, but far from the only illustration of how deeply President Obama politicized the daily operations of the IRS, according to a new report from a congressional oversight panel.

 

"Most American taxpayers find themselves at the mercy of the IRS — they must turn over sensitive information and even successful efforts to fight off erroneous agency actions can create life-altering turmoil," said the report that will be made public Tuesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

 

"Trust in the IRS is essential — Americans want and expect an IRS that treats them fairly and does not discriminate based on factors like race, religion, political beliefs, or legal participation in our democracy. The facts surrounding wrongdoing by the IRS and the agency’s wholly inadequate response have broken the trust that Americans placed in the IRS as a neutral and unbiased enforcer of the tax code," it said.

 

(Snip)

 

The report also noted that IRS officials considered at other means of silencing the nonprofit groups, including imposing a gift tax on donations to them: "In late 2010 and early 2011, the IRS initiated audits of five individuals who had donated to 501©(4) organizations. Although the IRS denied any broader attempt to tax gifts to 501©(4) groups, internal documents suggest otherwise."

 

(Snip)