Posted on 06/02/2013 4:43:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
The mess the IRS has gotten itself in has been fascinating. Having all these commentators writing about the Service from high above the earth offers great entertainment. I have been working with the Service since 1979. Let me offer you some first-hand perspective.
Let me say, first of all, despite the IRS’s horrible reputation there are worse. At least in California, the Franchise Tax Board (income tax) and State Board of Equalization (sales tax) are eons worse in demeanor or concern for the taxpayer. The IRS has vastly improved its attitude in phone conversations over the past ten years, even regarding how they use basic language, such as referring to taxpayers as customers. They are much friendlier in that way. But there still remains an outsized challenge dealing with their revenue agents and higher in their structure.
I could convey hundreds of war stories, but here is one that is typical. I started an audit with a revenue agent in March. It was clear that she had a long way to go. She made a request for additional documents that caused me to speak to her about another appointment at my office. She indicated she was going on vacation and would be back April 16th. I told her I was leaving on vacation the next day. We agreed I would contact her when I got back and we agreed on a date in May. I called her before I left and verified this plan with her.
As soon as I left on my trip she developed another document request and went over to my client’s home to deliver the document. My client went nuts and emailed me. I had to call my client from Amsterdam and then the supervisor of the revenue agent. I made clear that I had a Power of Attorney and no direct contact should have been made to the taxpayer. After going round and round the supervisor refused to acknowledge the highly improper behavior, the supervisor put the matter on hold until I got back.
When I got back the client and I had a discussion with the revenue agent. She did not relent. I asked to have her removed from the case and the supervisor did not. We then appealed to the regional office to have her removed for her errant behavior and lying. The regional office turned us down. When I spoke to the Regional Administrator, he would not remove her. I asked what justification would be needed to remove her if breaking the Power of Attorney, lying to the tax professional and creating a total atmosphere of mistrust were not good reason enough. He refused to answer. I asked him what would be justification for removing the agent. He refused to answer. I asked him if axe murdering my client would be justification for removal. He refused to answer. The IRS has a problem saying they are wrong or saying “I am sorry.”
After two years and taking the case to appeals, the case landed back with the revenue agent and her supervisor. My client received a bill for an amount in the high six figures prior to the meeting. At the meeting, the supervisor finally came to the realization the revenue agent was a dunce and we came out of the meeting with my client being owed $50,000. The process inflicted a lot of pain and agony because the IRS was errant.
Was this revenue agent the only over-eager IRS employee? Absolutely not. Recently one agent’s voice went up an octave every time she thought she found something against my client. I asked if she was there to get revenue or to find a fair result for the taxpayer. You can answer that question yourself.
How does this reflect on the current scandal? There are only two possible situations here. Either there were overly-eager IRS staffers applying unjust requests against certain applicants or there was political direction from the top. There could be a mixture of the two, but nothing else.
We do know that IRS employees can be overly aggressive and anti-taxpayer. It happens all the time. Let us remember they are career government employees who think government is good. For people in the IRS nonprofit department to have hostility against groups that are formed to stifle government growth would not be a stretch.
Yet we know from the Inspector General’s report that there was supervision from Washington and intervention from Washington. What we do not know is how or why. We also know that the former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House 118 times… correct that 157 times. Other than the Easter egg hunt he alluded to, why in God’s name would he be there at all? His predecessor who served for the same length of time was at the White House once. The entire matter stinks of manipulation.
Our President appointed a government bureaucrat (political appointee) to take over as IRS Commissioner and gave him 30 days to do a “top-to-bottom review” of the IRS. Please; that is as silly as when Lois Lerner stated the Tea Party problem was centered in Cincinnati and was not politically motivated. These people really think we are stupid.
Nothing will do here except a Special Counsel who has subpoena power to dig in to communications (the Inspector General did not), interrogate witnesses, threaten criminal action if appropriate and get to the truth. Some people think a special counsel will delay results, but without the threat of criminal prosecution against protected government employees we will not get to the truth.
This is bigger than we know now and every American should be livid. If the IRS gets away with this now, what will be next?
The IRS stole the 2012 election for Obama and the democrats/socialists in the Senate.Obama ordered his IRS to rig the election ( to shut down tea party groups and individual donors to Republicans ).And that’s exactly what the IRS did . This big eared socialist would not be now signing UN arms treaties that take away our 2nd amendment right if it had not gotten the IRS, FBI , DHS, DOJ , dept of labor etc. to rig the election. We no longer live in a free country. We don’t have free nor valid elections in the USA anymore. the MSM pulled a coup in 2008. We now live in Venezuela. But we can’t surrender to these vile, liberal, sick , hard core communist scum, namely democrats. We have to speak out , and be involved in the political process. We can’t give in to evil.
Yes...this is going to be a criminal mess that will need investigating for many months.
Let’s see if big media can continue in their “nothing much to see here, let’s move on” mode. I doubt they can...but they are likely to try. Once this huge scandal gets traction it’s going to lead to the White House.
Will Obama have a “John Dean” who agrees to take the fall. I don’t see Valerie Jarrett going quietly...she and the POTUS will need to set somebody up.
What about Kathryn R....(I forget her last name) White House staff attorney who Obama claims did not tell him about the approaching scandal. Is she willing to give up her career for Jarrett/Obama? Maybe...she will be well compensated after a few months in prison.
It’s going to be an interesting summer...get the popcorn ready.
Soapbox - muted.
Ballot box - stolen.
Jury box - corrupted.
Sadly, only one box left. The Founding Fathers would have not waited this long. The Confederacy was up and running before it got to this stage.
Deo vindice.
While not disagreeing that a combination of these two factors is indeed likely, I propose a third possibility.
IRS agents, after a SCOTUS ruling, were tasked with giving additional scrutiny to "political" groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Liberals have a very strong tendency to not think of groups promoting liberal causes as being "political" in the same sense conservative groups opposing those causes are.
For example, a group supporting gay marriage is likely to be, quite sincerely, viewed as an organization promoting tolerance, a non-political good. Meanwhile, a group opposing gay marriage would to their mind be political and partisan by definition.
Or a group promoting stricter regulations on consumer products is just a "consumer protection group," while an organization opposing them is politically supportive of Big Business.
I suspect some at least of what happened is due to the common liberal worldview that their own preferences are not "political," they're just common sense. This is why they call themselves the reality based community. Supporting reality is not political, while opposing it is.
When I get any letter from the IRS, even benign informational stuff, I cringe.
YOu people have no conscience. I say dismantle the whole damn bunch...
And to boot, you have a union????
This SOB stole the election. HIs people have infiltrated all levels of govt, I shudder to think what would have happened if he was able to appoint ALL of czars that the wanted.
When I get any letter from the IRS, even benign informational stuff, I cringe.
YOu people have no conscience. I say dismantle the whole damn bunch...
And to boot, you have a union????
This SOB stole the election. HIs people have infiltrated all levels of govt, I shudder to think what would have happened if he was able to appoint ALL of czars that the wanted.
5.56mm
That is the key.
Obama and his “Jack booted thugs” are the result of two generations of Americans going through public indoctrination centers. They are all absolutely ignorant of American and world history, morality, politics and the founding documents of this country and why they came to be.
Sports, playing, entertainment, the need not to work, and self-gratification are the only things they know and have been taught that the government can give that to them....nothing else.
Freedom to them is the ability to do anything they desire without regard to laws....that is, laws they don’t like.
Next time tell them that you will supply the requested information only AFTER Lois Lerner testifies and when Douglas Shulman gives a rational (i.e. non-Easter Egg Roll) explanation as why he visited the White House 157+ times.
Very good point.
I have been confronted with similar agents, however this writer handled it wrong as far as his client is concerned. I would have worked with the agent and continued to document the problems with the agent so I could use their behavior as part of my appeal. The attack on the agent would be met with a closing of ranks even if they knew the agent was incompetent. The writer lost his advantage by using the behavior in isolation.
So they’s be WORSE than the IRS..............
....well, then it’s all right, I suppose.
Has anyone been able to view the line dancing video of the IRS workers practicing? Tried to open it on Drudge but no luck!
Different organizations will attract different people. Groups that have children, like boy scouts will attract pedophiles. The IRS will attract folks who want to abuse others. The more unchecked power,the more they can abuse. The cause does not matter for them.
Thanks. I’ve proposed this theory on several threads, but got little traction.
I suspect what happened was actually a mix of all three possibilities.
The problem with your theory is that at least in this case the IRS were not equal opportunity abusers. Certain types of groups were targeted for abuse while others were given a free ride.
A propensity for abusive behavior does not explain this difference.
The Lerner woman has committed hate crimes. Her racial type in conjunction with power resulted in crimes motivated by hate.
Even if the Republicans sweep the next 2 elections the Democrart bureaucracy will sstill be in control. A Republican administration cannot remove most of the civil service peole and will not remove most of the ones that they can. They will change the top appointees and that is it. Democrats control the continuing government because when they get the presidency they make a clean sweep of all the non compatible people they can reach and people who go to work for the government start out with a bias toward government enlargement and power. Only eliminating large agencies like EPA, and IRS(with a no-deduction flat tax) and Commerce and FDA(maybe only 90%) and a host of others will make a dent in the problem. There have to be fewer agencies and far fewer government employees.
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