Free Republic

A federal judge on Friday said that the court could not compel the IRS to turn over President Trump’s tax returns. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) launched a suit against the IRS earlier this year after the agency refused to hand over the documents as part of an open-records request. Through the Freedom of Information Act, EPIC had sought Trump’s personal tax returns from 2010 to the present day and any documents that may reveal financial relationships with the Russian government or Russian businesses. However, personal tax forms are confidential. They can only be obtained if Trump himself gave...

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the IRS to name the specific employees the agency blames for targeting tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny and said the government must prove it has ceased the targeting. Judge Reggie B. Walton also said the IRS must explain the reasons for the delays for 38 groups that are part of a lawsuit in the District of Columbia, where they are still looking for a full accounting of their treatment. Judge Walton approved another round of limited discovery in the case and laid out six questions that the IRS must answer, including the employees’...

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected record amounts of both individual income taxes and payroll taxes through the first ten months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of July), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. Through July, the federal government collected approximately $1,312,691,000,000 in individual income taxes. At the same time, it collected $976,278,000,000 in Social Security and other payroll taxes. Prior to this year, fiscal 2015 held the record for individual income tax collections through July. That year, the Treasury collected $1,309,431,860,000 (in constant 2017 dollars) in individual income taxes in the first ten months of...

The Internal Revenue Service rehired 213 employees who ducked taxes, falsified documents, were convicted of theft, or made unauthorized use of taxpayer data, an inspector general’s report says. The Office of Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which also first discovered the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups in 2013, examined the agency’s hiring from January 2015 through March 2016. For these 15 months, the IRS official in charge was Commissioner John Koskinen, an appointee of resident Barack Obama. House Republicans for months sought to impeach Koskinen for obstructing a congressional probe into the agency’s targeting of the applications for tax-exempt...

The Obama administration “misled” Americans into thinking signing up for Obamacare would be cheaper than it really was, according to an inspector general’s report Thursday that said the IRS dramatically understated the actual cost of enrolling. IRS officials sent the letters to try to prod Americans to comply with the 2010 health law’s “individual mandate” that penalizes them for not holding coverage. But as part of the letters, the IRS said most people could find plans for $75 a month or less once government subsidies were figured in. That was untrue — in fact, the average cost was more than...

16 Mar, 2015 15 Mar, 2015 Sixteen months ago, Nicholas Confessore and Amy Chozick wrote in The New York Times about the loose governance and financial performance of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. For example, after more than 10 years in operation, the Foundation had internal controls that were only just coming into play, while financial disclosures seemed sloppy and even misleading. In addition, two months have elapsed since Eric Braverman– the talented executive recruited in July 2013 to put the Clinton Foundation back into order– resigned unexpectedly several weeks following renewal of his long-term management contract by the...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City firefighters are on the scene of a hazardous material situation at the IRS building Friday. According to James Garrett with the Kansas City Fire Department, about 10 people were in the mail room when a suspicious package showed up. Those 10 people complained of chest pains, vomiting and sweating. At least seven people were taken by ambulance to area hospitals to be treated. You can watch that activity in the video player below.

Does IRS chairman John Koskinen have superpowers?  Or does he know things so incriminating about everyone that he not only retains his job (in the face of demands for his firing), but flaunts his ability to offer succor to abusive bureaucrats? Ali Meyer reports in the Washington Free Beacon: The Internal Revenue Service rehired employees who were previously involved in agency misconduct such as falsifying documents or having unauthorized access to sensitive taxpayer information, according to an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Considering that identify theft is a major concern, auditors wanted to inspect the agency to ensure the...

Even when there was a note to not rehire an employee on the personnel file, IRS rehired them anyway The Internal Revenue Service rehired employees who were previously involved in agency misconduct such as falsifying documents or having unauthorized access to sensitive taxpayer information, according to an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Considering that identify theft is a major concern, auditors wanted to inspect the agency to ensure the individuals they hire are of high integrity in safeguarding sensitive taxpayer information. The auditors found there were 200 employees who were rehired between January 2015 and March...

President Trump has been feuding this week with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over matters related to last year’s campaign. But here’s an issue on which Messrs. Trump and Sessions should be able to find common ground: The Justice Department should stop defending Obama administration corruption. I’m referring to the cases, still on file today, challenging or seeking to expose Internal Revenue Service policies that delayed applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups. That’s viewpoint discrimination, a clear First Amendment violation. The Obama Justice Department fought these cases intensely. It tried to get them thrown out of court before the plaintiffs...

Many of the ideas that emerge from Washington are stale, unimaginative and unworkable. Not so the latest pitch from a group of conservative congressional Republicans: Eliminate the IRS. This goes beyond some kind of political revenge fantasy. It's time to consider the damage that the IRS does both to Americans' freedoms as individuals and to the costs it imposes on the economy as a whole, argue the 151 members of the Republican Study Group, an in-house conservative think tank, in their newest budget proposal. The proposal, an alternative to the House Budget Committee's official 2018 budget, comes as part of...

Judicial Watch Launches New Election Integrity Lawsuit IRS Records Missing Court Update: Weiner Laptop Documents Uncovered Judicial Watch Launches New Election Integrity Lawsuit This week saw the first official meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity , which is under attack from leftists who want to preserve the ability to steal elections. Also this week, your Judicial Watch filed a new lawsuit that could serve to get key information about the integrity of election rolls in Maryland (one of the states “resisting” inquiries from the Advisory Commission on Election Integrity). We filed the lawsuit simply to gain...

[snip] The inspector general for the agency found that individuals with more than one Social Security Number received $171 million, according to a new audit. In many cases, the payments were issued to SSNs held by deceased individuals."We identified more than 5,000 instances where, contrary to Agency policy, SSA appeared to simultaneously issue monthly [Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance] OASDI benefits and/or SSI payments to individuals under both of their cross-referred SSNs," the inspector general said.

The Albuquerque Tea Party has been granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service after applying eight years ago. The Albuquerque Journal reports Graham Bartlett, president of the local Tea Party, says he was informed about a month ago that the group's request was going through. Bartlett says the Albuquerque Tea Party requested tax-exempt status because it relies on donations and people tend to donate more when they know they can write it off on their taxes.

<p>The unmarked vehicles arrived in the morning. More than 20 armed agents poured out.</p> <p>Hours later, Mii’s Bridal & Tuxedo was out of business after serving customers for decades. Its entire inventory of wedding gowns and dresses as well as sewing machines and other equipment were sold at auction.</p>

Mr. Garfinkle of Garfinkle’s New Method Hebrew School in Milwaukee used to frequently echo King Solomon’s admonition; “There’s nothing new under the sun.” I was reminded of that this week when the rapidly unfolding “scandal” of Trump’s purported dealings with Russia hit the news. It has more than a few similarities with the Dan Rather faked-up story of GW Bush’s National Guard service where an anonymous, never-found source supposedly gave Bill Burkett a demonstrably fake report and Dan Rather ran with it. This time a Bush (Jeb) is involved but as an instigator of the story, not a victim. John...

I am now researching the rights of the American Taxpayer. Has any taxpayer fought the IRS and won? In fact, yes! The first case we will discuss is https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-139.pdf The tax code generally allows the IRS to audit three years back, and six in some cases. The U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC has dramatically cut back on IRS reaches into six year territory. It is an absolutely positive win for the American taxpayer. The main rule is that the IRS time to audit runs three years after filing or due date. However, the IRS...

Tax season may be over, but next year’s taxes will be due before we know it—and at least 1.4 million Americans won’t know that their Social Security numbers are being used by illegal aliens. An Internal Revenue Service report that this is roughly the number of illegal aliens who are impersonating citizens when it comes to file taxes. To make things more maddening, they’re not allowed to work with the Department of Homeland Security on finding the identities of these people. Stephen Dinan at The Washington Times had more: Most illegal immigrants who pay taxes have stolen someone else’s legal...

The federal government currently wields a tremendous amount of power over the citizens of the United States, far more than the Founders intended. One manifestation of federal overreach is civil asset forfeiture. This practice allows the federal government to confiscate the wealth of its citizens upon the mere suspicion of wrongdoing. The IRS, not content with expropriating the wealth of its citizens on April 15 every year, has now taken up the practice of seizing funds that have been involved in perfectly legal transactions on the basis of a hunch. Thankfully, legislation in the House and the Senate has been...

something or someone claiming to be an austin, texas branch of the irs recently (~3 weeks ago) sent me a letter. i should receive a refund from the irs due to overpayment by several thousand dollars. however, according to the irs, it is suspicious that i am really me. so it wants me to call them up on an 800 number, with two past 1040s and 22s in hand, so i can prove to them that i am me before they will believe the 1040 and send me my refund. they will allow a lawyer to be present ir i...