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“no need for a warrant because the information is in the public domain already”

I do see your point but to me it is a distinction without a difference. They have to have a valid reason to go after information about a specific person, even if such information is low-hanging fruit.

They can’t just monitor and spy on people, looking at their patterns of spending via credit cards, their associations with friends via social media and telephone records, see what their houses look like, etc., to build a file and FISH for POTENTIAL wrong-doing. We are allowed to have privacy in our spending and associations and our homes.

Intrusion is not permitted, and the easier it is for them to do so, the more vigilant we must be to violations such as these and call it what it is — a violation of the 4th Amendment.

IMHO

Click on the link near the top of the article and read through the redacted letter from the IRS dated September 2011. This wasn't a case of the IRS "spying" on anyone. It was the last step in an ongoing dispute between the IRS and an HOA about the tax-exempt status of the HOA. There's a lot of good information there that reinforces my prior comment that this was a terrible example for someone to use to complain about unjustifiable intrusion by the IRS. It looks like the HOA "got caught with their pants down," for example, because they apparently stated that their streets are public roads but they have a security gate to verify that anyone driving there is an owner or visitor. LOL.

For what it's worth, I believe a non-profit organization has to re-qualify for its 501(c)(4) status periodically -- maybe even every year. So the people managing this particular HOA may have made multiple fraudulent representations about the HOA's status in the past. They should consider themselves lucky that they're only being asked to file returns from prior years.

I guess I’m stumped as to what’s going on here.

Does the fact that there are no sidewalks or bicycle lanes disqualify it for historical status?

Were expenditures on sidewalks or bicycle lanes claimed on the organization’s Form 990?

Also what if there is no money in the HOA accounts? Do they go after the officers? By the way there are no bicycle lanes in my neighborhood - there are some sidewalks but they are maintained by the city, not the HOA. Does that make the HOA taxable?

I did run for HOA office a couple of years ago and didn’t win. Maybe I was lucky.