Free Republic

Just recently, a new scam has started involving fake tax bills tied to the Affordable Care Act. In one sure sign the notices are fake, many are arriving by email—and the IRS doesn’t initiate taxpayer contact by email. Even so, some of the fakes are paper notices sent by regular mail and taxpayers should watch out.

Irked by the decision of 20 million Americans who have declined to sign up for Obamacare, the IRS is crafting a letter to advise them of the "antisocial implications" of non-participation. Commissioner John Koskinen explained that "failure to enroll evinces a lack of cooperation with a policy that the government has determined is necessary. Non-compliers may feel that enrollment is optional. It is not. That's why there is a fine. Paying the fine doesn't get them off the hook." Koskinen pointed out that "not only does the amount of the fine ratchet up each year, our Agency has other tools...

Are you one of 20 million uninsured Americans who hasn’t signed up for Obamacare? Then you might be getting a note from the IRS this year “suggesting” you enroll. “Getting a letter from the IRS can be a threatening and nerve-racking experience; it seldom is seen as a suggestion and more of a threat,” Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner wrote in a Forbes column Wednesday. The IRS is reportedly “reaching out” to Americans who claimed an exemption or chose to pay the tax penalty for not purchasing mandatory health insurance. The ploy is intended to “attract” Obamacare enrollees. “The government...

The chief of the IRS fended off Republican demands Wednesday that he should lose his job, telling the House Judiciary Committee that he'd made statements about missing emails that later proved wrong but had done nothing to merit impeachment. At a four-and-one-half hour hearing on whether to oust him, John Koskinen repeatedly said he'd cooperated fully with congressional investigators probing why his agency — before he joined it — subjected tea party groups seeking tax exemptions to excessive scrutiny. Conservatives leading a campaign-year effort to remove him said Koskinen has headed an agency that destroyed emails investigators wanted and he...

Was wondering why almost no stories appear about IRS raids on individuals and/or businesses? We know they take place, but seldom see stories about such. Have they persuaded the MSM not report such? Just wondering...

While acknowledging that the IRS bungled tea party applications, and that he himself gave wrong information to Congress, agency Commissioner John Koskinen told lawmakers Wednesday he needs to remain at the IRS in order to clean it up. At a hearing designed to lay the ground for his possible impeachment, Mr. Koskinen implied he was let down by his subordinates, who allowed hundreds of backup tapes to be destroyed, losing tens of thousands of emails from former senior executive Lois G. Lerner. It is the loss of those emails, even as they were under a subpoena issued by Congress, that...

The commissioner of the IRS is apologizing to Congress for information his agency lost and inaccurate statements he made during congressional investigations of its treatment of tea party and other conservative groups. John Koskinen is facing an impeachment effort by House conservatives, and he’s set to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. That panel released his opening statement late Tuesday. …

Democratic Senator Sought DOJ and IRS Prosecutions of Conservatives Days Before 9/11 DHS Secretary Says Islam is Religion of Peace, ISIS Isn’t Islamic Top State Officials Raised Questions about Clinton Emails Three Years Ago It’s Official! Clean House is New York Times Bestseller! Democratic Senator Sought DOJ and IRS Prosecutions of Conservatives It wasn’t just Obama’s Internal Revenue Service that sought to suppress conservative voices in order to help him retain the presidency in 2012. We learned further of a dangerous enterprise involving a key Democratic Senator and the Obama Justice Department from 72 pages of Justice documents we...

Last Oct. 15, I raised this "iconic" Watergate-themed question in a piece heheadlined: "What Does Obama Know about the Clinton E-mail and Foundation Scandals, and When Did He Know It?" Subsequently, over the last year, as more Clinton corruption and scandals have come to light, Obama remains largely untouched, floating above the fray. How is it that Obama has not been connected to or tarnished by Clinton's various scandals? Why doesn't Obama bear any blame for his Justice Department's controversial decision not to indict his former Secretary of State? Was Obama blind to the millions of foreign government donations pouring...

Representative John Fleming (R-La.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, filed a motion on Tuesday to bring a “privileged resolution” to the House floor calling for the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. He told reporters at a press conference that “after so many months of waiting, it was time to move forward.” Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chairman of the caucus, agreed, saying, “On Thursday we’ll find out if we actually have the votes and move forward.” Skepticism abounds. Some House members question whether Koskinen’s lies, dithering, and lack of forthrightness over the investigation into the Internal Revenue...

House Republicans reached an agreement late Wednesday to avoid a potentially divisive floor vote on impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. The deal scraps the vote on the so-called "privileged" impeachment resolution that had been expected to take place Thursday. Instead, the House Judiciary Committee will consider Koskinen's impeachment, with the IRS boss expected to testify sometime next week. The agreement makes it unlikely that any vote by the full House to impeach Koskinen will happen until after the November election, if at all. House Republican leadership had balked on moving forward on impeachment proceedings during an election season, arguing that...

Blah blah blah. It’s garbage. Nobody’s trying to kill the IRS House conservatives formally introduced a resolution yesterday aimed at removing the defiantly corrupt IRS Commissioner John Koskinen from office. The impeachment resolution could see a vote this week. Rep. John Fleming, R-La., a sponsor of the resolution, offered the measure under special procedures that put the House of Representatives on track to vote Thursday. on the effort.

House conservatives revived a long-shot effort Tuesday to oust IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, formally introducing an impeachment resolution expected to see a vote by the end of the week. Rep. John Fleming, R-La., a sponsor of the drive, offered the measure under special procedures that put the House on track to vote Thursday on the effort. Conservatives say Koskinen hampered Congress' effort to investigate the IRS for tough assessments of Tea Party groups that sought tax exemptions several years ago. Koskinen denies that. “For years the IRS has abused its power to target people based on their political views. Commissioner...

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions that the federal government must recognize and states must allow same-sex marriages (Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013); Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015)), the IRS finalized proposed regulations issued in October 2015 under Sec. 7701 amending the definitions of “spouse” and “husband and wife” to reflect those decisions (T.D. 9785). The final rules make a few changes from the rules proposed in REG-148998-13, in response to comments. Under the final regulations, for federal tax purposes, the terms “spouse,” “husband,” and “wife” are defined as an individual lawfully married to...

The IRS warned tax practitioners on Friday of a new wave of cyberattacks that allow criminals to remotely access practitioners' computers and file fraudulent tax returns. The attacks come as practitioners prepare for the Oct. 17 extended filing deadline for individual returns; the IRS reported similar attacks before the April 15 deadline. The IRS says that the attacks allow thieves to take control of practitioners' computers, access client data, and complete and e-file tax returns, directing the resulting refunds into the criminals' own accounts. Victims become aware of the attacks when reconciling e-filing acknowledgments.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a report this week indicating that the IRS had discovered more than a million cases of identity theft but failed to notify any of the victims. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen defended the lack of effort to inform the taxpayers whose identities were stolen as "not the agency's job. Look, in the vast majority of these thefts the stolen IDs are merely being used by undocumented residents to obtain employment. There is no negative impact on the government. If a person's ID is stolen and someone else uses it to get a...

Inspector General: IRS identified 1.1 million cases of The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a report Tuesday which found the IRS had identified 1.1 million cases of employment-related identity theft since 2011 but failed to notify the victims. As the IG’s press release makes clear, TIGTA pointed out this same problem to the IRS in a previous audit: Why is the IRS so hesitant to deal with this problem? Because most of the people committing the identity theft are illegal immigrants.

The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the taxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday. Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled — and fell woefully short anyway. As a result, most taxpayers don’t learn that their identities have been stolen and their Social Security files may be screwed up. “Taxpayers identified...

The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the taxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday. Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled, and fell woefully short anyway. As a result most taxpayers don’t learn that their identities have been stolen and their Social Security files may be screwed up. “Taxpayers identified as...

The IRS is still holding up three tea party groups’ applications, Commissioner John Koskinen admitted in a letter to Congress last week — but he insisted he agents are finally about to begin processing them. Mr. Koskinen is hoping to head off yet another judicial spanking for his agency, which has suffered a string of defeats in federal courts that ruled he is still improperly targeting conservative groups and mistreating them more than three years after the tax agency admitted to its bad behavior. Not only are three groups still awaiting approval, but the IRS had left open the possibility...