Posted on 04/21/2014 1:52:13 PM PDT by Siegfried X
The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exemption for a conservative charity, saying the group’s criticism of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry violated rules against political activity.
The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty engaged in “deliberate and consistent intervention in political campaigns,” according to the IRS decision released Friday and first reported by USA Today...
Tax-exempt groups are restricted from engaging in certain political activity, including participating in partisan campaigns in support or opposition to a candidate.
The IRS said the Patrick Henry Center violated this rule, in part, by publishing “alerts” on its website that highlighted columns by its president, former FBI official and longtime Clinton critic Gary Aldrich.
In one column cited by the IRS that appeared to be published by Townhall on April 2, 2004, Aldrich wrote “if John Kerry promises otherwise ill-informed swing-voters lower gas prices at the pump, more than a few greedy, registered ignoramuses will follow him anywhere.”
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
So they’ve revoked the tax-exempt status of all those black and left-wing churches who had political rallies, Obamacare sign-ups, gay marriage protests, Trayvon demonstrations and the like, right?
Ay-Yup.
Just cuz they gots the R next to the name don’t mean they is one...
And here in Overrun California, “if there is a next time” is already a done deal.
Ain’t gonna happen...
Oh Dear Mercy Me No, that would be WACIST!!
RICO, RICO, RICO
Environmental group abuses:
http://www.inhofe.senate.gov/download/?id=42d61495-c8b0-4de3-a3e2-58e033b19452&download=1
meanwhile SEIU can have Ds share their office space
nobody will stop them
McConnell is likely cheering it on
Vulnerable Democrats urge IRS to step up scrutiny of tax-exempt groups
February 14, 2014
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/14/vulnerable-democrats-urge-irs-to-step-up-scrutiny-political-groups/
The IRS is still being used as a political attack dog, AND NO ONE IS GOING TO JAIL.
It appears so my FRiend. It appears so. It is why I get so combative here when I am presented with many good minded Freepers who cannot understand that continuing to vote for GOPe RINOs does nothing for us conservatives.
One almost wonders why is that these anxious Republicans trying to maintain the voting integrity of the flock don’t spend more time biting the collective a$$es of the do-nothing they want us to keep voting for. It is entirely frustrating.
This is really targeted at Americans For prosperity, folks.
Here is how to beat the IRS.
They actually went after and recruited IRS employees to join their church and then started an IRS employee whistleblower’s organization. they gave the IRS so much grief that the IRS caved and accepted them as a church!
Timeline of Scientology versus the IRS
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/timeline.html
This is an excellent example of Sun Tzu’s Art of War being applied.
That’s going back what...10 years? There is nothing more recent?
Here is an interesting history of a battle of a non-profit with the IRS:(Maybe the Tea Party should read this!!!)
Cindy Raymond (Collections Officer in the US Information Bureau of the GO) in Los Angeles, California, sends a directive to Michael Meisner (Assistant Guardian for Information, Washington, DC) ordering him to recruit a loyal Scientologist to be placed as a covert agent at Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.
The agent is to obtain employment with the Internal Revenue Service for the purpose of taking from that agency all documents which dealt with Scientology, including those concerning pending litigation initiated by Scientology against the United States Government.
A number of Scientologists are interviewed as prospective agents. However, none are found to be suitable.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 18
Sept 1974: Gerald Bennett Wolfe is selected by Raymond to infiltrate the IRS on behalf of the Church of Scientology.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 18
21 Oct 1974: Jane Kember, the Guardian World Wide (based in East Grinstead in England) issues Guardian Order 1361. Its “operating targets” include the following:
Immediately get an agent into DC IRS to obtain files on LRH, Scientology, etc. in the Chief Council’s office, the Special Services staff, the intelligence division, Audit Division, and any other areas.
Collect data on the Justice Dept. Tax Division for the org board, the current terminals, and the people handling Scientology.
When the correct areas are isolated, infiltrate and get the files.
It also calls for the planting of “an agent, trustworthy and well grooved in, to infiltrate the IRS LA office” (target 2). That agent is “to obtain any files on LRH, Scientology”, etc. from both the Intelligence Division (target 3) and the Audit Division (target 4) of the Los Angeles IRS Office. It also calls for the location (target 20) and infiltration (target 22) of the IRS office at the US Embassy in London, England in order to “obtain all documents” (target 22).
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp. 19-21
1 Nov 1974: Michell Hermann, the GO’s Information Branch I Director, plants an radio transmitting bug in the conference room of the IRS’ Chief Counsel, where a confidential meeting is to be held concerning Scientology. The meeting is to discuss pending legal actions involving the various churches of Scientology and to establish general guidelines for determination of what constituted a “religious institution” entitled to exemption from taxation under the Internal Revenue Code. The entire meeting is recorded and transcribed by GO agents in a car outside the building.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp. 23-24
18 Nov 1974: Scientology agent Gerald Wolfe obtains employment at the IRS as a clerk typist.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 18
4 Dec 1974: Using fake passes, Hermann and Meisner illegally enter the Exempt Organization Division of the IRS and steal a file on Scientology, which they describe in a telex as “two shipments from DC . . . about ten inches” thick.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 38
around 30 Dec 1974: Hermann orders Wolfe to obtain all documents related to Scientology from the IRS office of Barbara Bird, an attorney in Refund Litigation Service.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 41
Jan - July 1975: Wolfe steals thousands of documents, totaling some 10 feet in height, from the offices of Barbara Bird and Lewis Hubbard of the Chief Counsel’s Office and from the Chief Counsel’s file room, as well as from other offices within the suite of offices comprising the Office of the Chief Counsel.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, p. 53
May 1975
“Project Horn” is devised by Greg Willardson (Deputy Deputy Guardian for Information) and the order to implement it given to Meisner. Its aim is to “provide a cover for PR [Public Relations] and legal for the way they obtained IRS docs.” This project further implements Guardian Order 1361, Target 6, which already provides for the creation or a “suitable cover” to disguise the true manner in which stolen documents have been obtained from the IRS so that the Public Relations Bureau can use them without fear of being connected to the thefts.
Meisner is ordered to steal documents concerning organizations other than Scientology. Thus, whenever any stolen IRS documents are later released, those other organizations will also be perceived as having received them and their publication will not point to the Church of Scientology alone. Additionally, the project orders the theft of IRS stationery so it might be used by the GO to draft false letters from a fictitious IRS employee disgruntled with the organization. Wolfe is tasked with the actual thefts and accomplishes them successfully.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp. 48-49
7 May 1975: Willardson requests the Guardian’s Office World-Wide to approve an additional expenditure of funds for the excerption, xeroxing and cross-filing of 15,000 documents stolen from the IRS. This is so that Mary Sue Hubbard and other senior GO personnel can be advised “as fast as possible as to the IRS’s intentions in regards to the Church during the ongoing IRS tax exemption negotiations.” The letter adds that “[t]his was a valuable action in that it resulted in a more real estimate as to the IRS scene than was visible [sic] from the Legal viewpoint.”
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp. 55-56
27 May 1975: Mary Sue Hubbard writes a letter to her deputy, Jane Kember, on Scientology’s “IRS Strategy”. It states:
Our overall strategy with the IRS shall be as follows:
1. To use any method at our disposal to win the battle and gain our non-profit status.
2. To buy all the time we can in terms of years ... So we work to win, but also to delay as time works on our side, not theirs ...
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp. 65-66
11 June 1975: The GO gets wind of a major financial audit to be made by the IRS of the Church of Scientology of California. Accordingly, the GO decides to obtain as much inside information as possible on the IRS’ “line of attack”. Meisner devises “Project Beetle Cleanup” for obtaining “all DC IRS files on LRH, Scientology, etc., in the Intelligence section, OIO [Office or International Operations], and SSS [Special Services Staff]”.
The project proposes the placement of “FSMs” (Field Staff members, or agents) in the “required areas or good access developed”, and further that “Pitts” (the code name for Nancy Douglass - a GO agent who had infiltrated the Drug Enforcement Agency) and “Silver” (Wolfe) attempt to obtain employment at the Internal Revenue Service Intelligence Division and Office of International Operations respectively.
Ref: Stipulation of Evidence, United States of America vs Mary Sue Hubbard et al, Oct 1979, pp.70-71
July 1975: The Church of Scientology brings a Freedom of Information Act suit against the IRS. Raymond orders Meisner to obtain information from the office of Charles Zuravin, the IRS attorney who would be defending the FOI case. This establishes a pattern: Scientology systematically sues the IRS and other Federal agencies, then penetrates the agencies’ attornies’ offices to steal the papers which Scientology was trying to access through FOI in the first place.
Ref: “A Piece of Blue Sky”, Jon Atack (1992), p. 233
5 Dec 1975: L. Ron Hubbard orders the Guardian’s Office to establish an “Early Warning System” to alert him of any moves by US Federal and State authorities against Hubbard personally. This is to be achieved through the planting of agents in dozens of different official bodies. The Assistant Guardian for Information (i.e. intelligence) in Washington, DC is ordered to “Place a separate agent into the IRS Office of International Organizations (OIO) (as this office has a case preparation or investigative action going on LRH personally for income tax evasion or something similar).”
I do not agree with Scientology in any way, but I am a student of strategy, even of those whom I do not agree with. The following summarizes how they beat the IRS. Sorry the source is the NY Times... http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/us/scientology-s-puzzling-journey-from-tax-rebel-to-tax-exempt.html
The full story of the turnabout by the I.R.S. has remained hidden behind taxpayer privacy laws for nearly four years. But an examination by The New York Times found that the exemption followed a series of unusual internal I.R.S. actions that came after an extraordinary campaign orchestrated by Scientology against the agency and people who work there. Among the findings of the review by The Times, based on more than 30 interviews and thousands of pages of public and internal church records, were these:
*Scientology’s lawyers hired private investigators to dig into the private lives of I.R.S. officials and to conduct surveillance operations to uncover potential vulnerabilities, according to interviews and documents. One investigator said he had interviewed tenants in buildings owned by three I.R.S. officials, looking for housing code violations. He also said he had taken documents from an I.R.S. conference and sent them to church officials and created a phony news bureau in Washington to gather information on church critics. The church also financed an organization of I.R.S. whistle-blowers that attacked the agency publicly.
*The decision to negotiate with the church came after Fred T. Goldberg Jr., the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service at the time, had an unusual meeting with Mr. Miscavige in 1991. Scientology’s own version of what occurred offers a remarkable account of how the church leader walked into I.R.S. headquarters without an appointment and got in to see Mr. Goldberg, the nation’s top tax official. Mr. Miscavige offered to call a halt to Scientology’s suits against the I.R.S. in exchange for tax exemptions.
After that meeting, Mr. Goldberg created a special committee to negotiate a settlement with Scientology outside normal agency procedures. When the committee determined that all Scientology entities should be exempt from taxes, I.R.S. tax analysts were ordered to ignore the substantive issues in reviewing the decision, according to I.R.S. memorandums and court files.
The I.R.S. refused to disclose any terms of the agreement, including whether the church was required to pay back taxes, contending that it was confidential taxpayer information. The agency has maintained that position in a lengthy court fight, and in rejecting a request for access by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act. But the position is in stark contrast to the agency’s handling of some other church organizations. Both the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and an affiliate of the Rev. Jerry Falwell were required by the I.R.S. to disclose that they had paid back taxes in settling disputes in recent years.
In interviews, senior Scientology officials and the I.R.S. denied that the church’s aggressive tactics had any effect on the agency’s decision. They said the ruling was based on a two-year inquiry and voluminous documents that showed the church was qualified for the exemptions.
Mr. Goldberg, who left as I.R.S. Commissioner in January 1992 to become an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, said privacy laws prohibited him from discussing Scientology or his impromptu meeting with Mr. Miscavige.
Some feminist nonprofits were allowed to indulge in not-for-profit politics during the ‘90s, and both sides let that kind of activity fly.
The IRS has gone outside the organization and hired some top people... primarily from the CPA profession. While the offers have been there, few jumped ship to cross over.
This paragraph from the NY Times is unbelievable. I specialized in Church & Clergy Tax Law back then and followed the cases.
“*Scientology’s lawyers hired private investigators to dig into the private lives of I.R.S. officials and to conduct surveillance operations to uncover potential vulnerabilities, according to interviews and documents. One investigator said he had interviewed tenants in buildings owned by three I.R.S. officials, looking for housing code violations. He also said he had taken documents from an I.R.S. conference and sent them to church officials and created a phony news bureau in Washington to gather information on church critics. The church also financed an organization of I.R.S. whistle-blowers that attacked the agency publicly.”
what would one expect from the South African IRS ? anyone appointed by Obama would make a great commissar
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