Thread: IRS still stalling status for TEA party

IRS still stalling status for TEA party

Posted on July 18, 2013


Part of the problem is that liberals like what the IRS is doing.
Check it out:


The IRS, which has been in trouble for weeks now for targeting conservative, Christian and Jewish organizations seeking tax-exempt status with invasive and probably illegal questions, still is stalling, charges a legal team in the battle.
The federal tax agency had offered an “expedited review” if the groups would agree to “an arbitrary 60/40 standard” requiring them to devote 60 percent of their time and expenditures to activities promoting social welfare and limit their political activity to 40 percent or less.
“The IRS created this standard out of thin air in an effort to placate Americans who have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.
“This so-called solution is deeply flawed and does nothing to address and correct the real problem at the IRS: a pervasive and systematic assault on conservative organizations. The IRS remains an agency incapable of self-governance or self-correction. Our federal lawsuit is moving forward to stop this abusive targeting scheme and to hold those responsible for this disturbing conduct accountable,” he said.
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WND EXCLUSIVE

IRS still stalling status for tea party

Attorneys say newly proposed standard comes from 'thin air'



The IRS, which has been in trouble for weeks now for targeting conservative, Christian and Jewish organizations seeking tax-exempt status with invasive and probably illegal questions, still is stalling, charges a legal team in the battle.

The federal tax agency had offered an “expedited review” if the groups would agree to “an arbitrary 60/40 standard” requiring them to devote 60 percent of their time and expenditures to activities promoting social welfare and limit their political activity to 40 percent or less.


“The IRS created this standard out of thin air in an effort to placate Americans who have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.
“This so-called solution is deeply flawed and does nothing to address and correct the real problem at the IRS: a pervasive and systematic assault on conservative organizations. The IRS remains an agency incapable of self-governance or self-correction. Our federal lawsuit is moving forward to stop this abusive targeting scheme and to hold those responsible for this disturbing conduct accountable,” he said.
The IRS discrimination has been well-documented. One IRS official pleaded the Fifth and declined to respond to questions from Congress, but others in the agency have admitted to cases cited by conservative groups who were told, for example, they had to reveal the content of members’ prayers or make promises about what they would or would not say.
The attacks started before the 2012 presidential election and limited the effectiveness of nearly 500 activist organizations as Barack Obama and his liberal agenda rolled to victory.
Now the ACLJ is representing several dozen of the organizations in a legal case against the IRS.
It was in that case that the IRS offered to address some of the pending applications, which have been on hold for years, if the arbitrary standard would be accepted.
In a letter Wednesday to IRS Senior Litigation Counsel Grover Hart III, Sekulow said: “As the IRS correspondence clearly states, the 60/40 percentage representations which you propose to impose upon our clients in order for them to be eligible for the expedited process are not legal standards defined by applicable statutes or regulations. These percentages are merely safe harbor provisions the IRS has crafted in response to the problems that have been created by its own admitted misconduct.”
The letter addressed the cases of just seven of the 41 clients represented by the ACLJ. But the ACLJ said: “Respectfully, six of these seven clients have answered all questions they are constitutionally obligated to answer. … Consequently, we have been instructed by our clients to reject the IRS’s offer for expedited review on the basis you have proposed.”
Sekulow continued: “Respectfully, because these seven clients have been awaiting determination for years and have complied with all legitimate requests for additional information, we request that the IRS complete its review of their applications and make a final determination immediately.”
The law firm officials say it would respond on behalf of the seventh client later.
The ACLJ said the seven organizations have been awaiting their 501(c)(4) status for more than 645 days, and in one case, it is 1,297 days.
The groups are Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots in Arizona, Allen Area Patriots in Texas, Laurens County Tea Party in South Carolina, North East Tarrant Tea Party in Texas, Myrtle Beach Tea Party in South Carolina, Albuquerque Tea Party in New Mexico and the Acadiana Patriots in Louisiana.
The lawsuit against the IRS alleges that the Obama administration has been violating the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and breaking the Administrative Procedure Act in addition to violating various rules and regulations.
It asks that the court issue a declaratory judgment that the IRS “unlawfully delayed and obstructed the organizations’ applications” for tax status determinations.
And it alleges those actions were based on unconstitutional standards and “impermissibly disparate treatment.”
Further, the legal claim asks for an injunction to protect the groups and their officers and directors from further IRS abuse.
The 41 groups come from 22 states and include 19 organizations that got tax-status notifications after lengthy delays. But 17 still are pending. Five gave up because of the frustrations of the IRS targeting.
The IRS claimed the targeting scheme originated with a couple of rogue IRS agents in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office and that the abuse had been stopped.
But the ACLJ said the practice was traced to Washington.
The IRS also has faced criticism over lavish spending at conventions, shady contracts, actual censorship of targeted groups, a real “enemies list” and the exposure of thousands of taxpayers’ personal Social Security numbers.
WND has been following the story, through the corruptions, the scandals, and now the call for the abolition of the IRS.
Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots told WND that “the discrimination and targeting the IRS engaged with U.S. citizens shows that it is too big and too powerful.”
The tea party activist says political talk is not enough.
“It is time to reform the IRS and the tax code (because) there have been three Taxpayer Bill of Rights passed since the 1980s and yet none of those actually protected the Bill of Rights. It is time to look at repealing the 16th Amendment and replacing the income tax with a tax that is fixed and can never be used as a political weapon again.”
Public opinion now heavily favors the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. Ending the IRS has been the subject of many cable news shows this week and shows no sign of relenting.
Americans already hated the IRS, so how could anything damage its reputation? Read this special Whistleblower magazine issue to find out.
A Wenzel Poll recently found a solid majority of Americans want the IRS to go the way of the dinosaur. The poll showed there is a reasonable amount of support among Democrats (about one-third) and independents (two-thirds), and that most Republicans (two-thirds) support the idea.
The telephone survey was done June 27-July 1 and has a margin of error of 3.25 percentage points.


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Politics
Rep. Jason Chaffetz Explodes at IRS Panel: Tired of Obama Admin. Needing to Keep Having These Hearings

Jul. 18, 2013 2:18pm Madeleine Morgenstern


Rep. Jason Chaffetz unloaded on the White House and a top Democratic colleague Thursday over the idea that House Republicans should drop their investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) lashed out during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups. (AP)


“I’m proud of the fact that we are pursuing this. If we did what the White House wanted us to do, if we did what the ranking member suggested we do, this thing would be over. ‘Nothing here!’ ‘Don’t do it!’ ‘As far as I’m concerned it’s over,’ Chaffetz (R-Utah) said during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Chaffetz was referring to ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) who said last month the IRS case was “solved.”
“When you have the spokesman for the president of the United States make a definitive statement that it was two rogue agents, and start poking at these people who have no power to do anything about it, that is wrong,” Chaffetz continued. “How dare anybody suggest we’re at the end of this? This is the beginning of this. We have to make an example out of it, we need to get to the bottom of it and quite frankly I’m tired of this administration having to keep having these hearings.”
“We’ve done it on Fast and Furious, we’re doing it on Benghazi, we’re doing it on the IRS — why? Each time, there’s a pattern. ‘Nothing here.’ Always ‘just a couple people.’ That’s not true,’” he said.
Chaffetz’ comments drew a response from Cummings attempting to interject, then led to a brief verbal wrestling match over which member had the floor.
Cummings said he had been referring to Republicans accusing the White House of being behind the IRS targeting when he said there was no evidence of that. He insisted he wanted inquiries into the IRS to continue.
“I want us to get to the bottom of that, and I really mean that,” Cummings said.
Watch Chaffetz’ comments below, beginning at the 3:00 mark:



http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...hese-hearings/


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...hese-hearings/

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