IRS targeted conservative donors for audit

[Geee]

American Thinker:

 

Judicial Watch has gotten its hands on some dynamite; emails showing the IRS deliberately targeted donors to conservative groups for audits.

The paper trail is pretty clear. The way it worked, was the IRS would compare lists of donors to 501©(4) organizations with a list of those who filed Gift Tax returns. Some of those donors who did not file a gift tax return were audited.

The significance here is that the IRS had not enforced the rule on gift taxes when the donation was to a political organization since 1982.

A letter dated September 28, 2010, then-Democrat Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) informs then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman: “ I request that you and your agency survey major 501©(4), ©(5) and ©(6) organizations …” In reply, in a letter dated February 17, 2011, Shulman writes: “In the work plan of the Exempt Organizations Division, we announced that beginning in FY2011, we are increasing our focus on section 501©(4), (5) and (6) organizations.”

In 2010, after receiving Baucus’s letter, the IRS considered the issue of auditing donors to 501©(4) organizations, alleging that a 35 percent gift tax would be due on donations in excess of $13,000. The documents show that the IRS wanted to cross-check donor lists from 501©(4) organizations against gift tax filings and commence audits against taxpayers based on this information.

[Geee]

NEW EMAILS: IRS Targeted Donors

 

Bombshell new emails reveal that the Obama administration’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) used donor lists of nonprofit groups to target donors, and specifically vowed to target the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

 

The emails, obtained by Judicial Watch, show that Obama’s IRS conspired to revive the “gift tax” — a tax on 501©(4) donors that had not been enforced since 1982 following a Supreme Court ruling that effectively invalidated it. Emails between IRS officials show that the agency referred to Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS while discussing how to enforce their new gift tax on donors.

 

On April 20, 2011, IRS lawyer Lorraine Garder emailed a donor list for a nonprofit group to James Hogan, a manager in the IRS’ Chief Counsel’s office. Judicial Watch noted that the disclosure of the redacted group’s donor list occurred during the period in which officials were discussing Crossroads GPS.

 

“Does Bob have information about any of the donors [to the group in question]?” Gardner wrote in an email to IRS Estate Gift and Policy Manager Lisa Piehl.

 

http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/22/new-emails-irs-targeted-donors/