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Inside IRS Unit Under Fire: Office Rankled Other Groups With Its Aggressive Tactics
The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 24, 2013 | Damien Paletta and Dionne Searcey

Posted on 05/25/2013 1:15:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Internal Revenue Service unit under fire for its reviews of conservative organizations has a long history of targeting groups with extra scrutiny, including foreclosure-assistance charities, credit-counseling services and New York Jewish charities, interviews with current and former employees show.

The scrutiny has included such tactics as listening to telephone calls between groups and their clients, according to one group's lawyer. In the case of tea-party organizations, IRS officials studied social-media postings to gauge political activity.

Sometimes the tactic of extra scrutiny for particular kinds of groups seeking tax exemptions helped manage a flood of entities in areas where abuse was common; other times it snagged innocent parties, subjected applicants to long delays and even made IRS employees feel uncomfortable.

The IRS's recent move to delay and second-guess hundreds of tax-exempt applications from conservative and other nonprofit groups appears to be the most politically tinged use of this model. Who came up with the plan to screen tea-party groups, and why they did so, isn't yet known.....

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: internalrevenue; irs; obama; teaparty
Elect a Chicago thug politician, get Chicago thug tactics.
1 posted on 05/25/2013 1:15:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The hard part is acting surprised.....


2 posted on 05/25/2013 1:17:31 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They listened to call between groups and their clients? I thought only law enforcement could do that.


3 posted on 05/25/2013 1:17:59 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

You know the difference between Watergate and Obama’s scandals??? The media wanted to get Nixon...this time they are looking to protect their messiah.


4 posted on 05/25/2013 1:18:53 PM PDT by kjo (+)
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To: FReepers; Patriots; FRiends




IMPEACH!

PLEASE Support FR Today!
FReepathon Day 55...

5 posted on 05/25/2013 1:20:07 PM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Flat tax is our only hope.


6 posted on 05/25/2013 1:35:43 PM PDT by District13 (I miss my country!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Who came up with the plan to screen tea-party groups, and why they did so, isn't yet known.

You mean "hasn't been assigned yet".

7 posted on 05/25/2013 2:04:39 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; nascarnation

They’re all just trying to distance themselves from it now because they’re scared. It’s almost as if the Nuremberg trials are about to start...go Issa!


8 posted on 05/25/2013 2:15:06 PM PDT by livius
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9 posted on 05/25/2013 3:09:52 PM PDT by RedMDer (You are Free Republic. There are no outside influences. Just us, all of us. Please donate today!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The IRS's questionable handling of the tea-party cases follows a long line of other groups selected for extra scrutiny.

In the mid-2000s, the IRS revoked or terminated the tax-exempt status of more than a dozen credit-counseling firms after finding they operated as businesses that weren't providing counseling or education.

In 2006, the IRS took a close look at groups helping potential home buyers secure down payments, after finding some had been essentially for-profit entities working for home sellers.

Several years ago, a succession of scandals rocked Jewish charities in New York and New Jersey. A Brooklyn rabbi told clients he was using a charity to help broker the sale of black-market kidneys, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agency also cracked down on other local charities with ties to money laundering, among other things.

So the WSJ is falling into line with the leftists' pretense that this has happened before, and in fact has happened many times before.

But what is common to all of them (BTW these are all the examples offered; I am not cherry picking) is the difference between them and the Tea Party groups: in each of these examples, the IRS imposed "extra scrutiny" on existing organizations only after bad behavior had already been demonstrated.

10 posted on 05/25/2013 3:52:21 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: jiggyboy

Don’t forget the questions that were forced on the Tea Party applicants. I have posted before the fact that they targeted Tea Party is easier to defend but he questions they forced on them and the delays prove it was political.


11 posted on 05/25/2013 4:00:11 PM PDT by glm
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To: glm

Yes. There’s no mention of that, which along with the matter of nobody actually having done anything wrong, is proof enough that this IRS behavior is not “all too common”, but unprecedented.


12 posted on 05/25/2013 4:12:04 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: jiggyboy
Yes. There’s no mention of that, which along with the matter of nobody actually having done anything wrong, is proof enough that this IRS behavior is not “all too common”, but unprecedented.

great point!

13 posted on 05/25/2013 5:00:32 PM PDT by glm
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Flat tax and fire all their stinkin’ blood sucker feet.


14 posted on 05/25/2013 7:03:48 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: neverdem; narses; SunkenCiv; Nachum; MHGinTN; SaraJohnson

I wonder how long the rest of the IRS would “holder out” against the investigators and House Committee who are asking question if ALL of the Treasury Department bonus for ALL of the Treasury Department government “workers” and managers were held up until the people are identified and brought before Congress under oath?


15 posted on 05/26/2013 2:13:03 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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