Charles Krauthammer: IRS Scandal Could Be a ‘Fatal Problem’ for Obama
[TheBlaze.com]
Fox News
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on Friday said the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative organizations could be “fatal” for the Obama administration if it turns out that anyone in the White House was aware of it.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Krauthammer called the IRS situation “the one scandal that people have a visceral sense about” — it’s the one U.S. institution, besides the military, that can do very serious harm.
Going after conservative groups based on their politics is “a violation that everybody — left or right– understands,” he added.
Krauthammer urged that there’s no suggestion that Obama knew what was happening, “but if there’s any indication that there were people in the White House who knew, who orchestrated, who encouraged or whatever, then it can be a fatal problem.”
Roskam: Why Did You Tell the ABA About IRS Scandal Before Congress?
[Breitbart.com]
May 17, 2013
Live Updates
Former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, who only took over in November and resigned this week at President Barack Obama’s behest, will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday on his role in targeting Tea Party and conservative groups for audit or excessive review.
Miller was the first senior IRS official to be disciplined in the scandal, though the problems began before he took over the IRS, and other senior officials were aware of the problem and appear to have misled Congress.
Though Miller’s resignation was reported as a decisive step by the president, his term had been due to expire in early June. Joseph Grant, had been appointed only several days before as Acting Commissioner of the IRS’s tax exempt and government entities division, has also resigned.
Other current and former IRS and Treasury officials have yet to be held accountable, including Lois Lerner, who first acknowledged the scandal on May 10, and former IRS Douglas Shulman, who told Congress in 2012 that Tea Party groups were not being targeted.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier this week that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would begin a criminal investigation of the IRS. Congressional Republicans have indicated that they will not be satisfied with a DOJ probe or the internal Treasury investigation released earlier this week, but will seek answers independently as they attempt to uncover who was responsible for the abuse and how widespread it has become. There are suspicions that the problem extends beyond the IRS alone and includes other federal agencies.
Obama evades question on White House knowledge of IRS targeting
[DailyCaller.com]
May 16, 2013
President Barack Obama dismissed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS scandal, and evaded a question asking if White House officials knew of the IRS targeting of conservative political groups.
“I can assure that I certainly did not know anything about the [inspector general] report before the IG report had been leaked through the press,” he told reporters during a Thursday lunchtime press conference held in the White House Rose Garden.
Obama’s evasion will likely spur public suspicions that White House officials knew about, or even supported, the IRS targeting.
Internal IRS Mandate: ‘Be on the Lookout’ for ‘Organizations Involved In … Educating on Constitution and Bill of Rights’
[CNSNews.com]
First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – A timeline of Internal Revenue Service activities that was developed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and provided to congressional staff indicates that early last year–as the nation was headed toward a presidential election–the IRS issued a “be on the lookout order” (BOLO) for officials in its “Determinations Unit” to ferret out for heightened scrutiny organizations applying for tax exempt status that were involved in educating Americans “on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
The inspector general’s timeline indicates that as early as March 2010 the IRS’s “Determinations Unit” had begun targeting for special scrutiny organizations that used in their tax-exempt applications the words “Tea Party” or “Patriots.”
The IG’s timeline says that in March-April 2010: “The Determinations Unit began searching for other requests for tax exemption involving the Tea Party, Patriots, 9/12 and I.R.C. § 501(c)(4) applications involving political sounding names, e.g., ‘We the People’ or ‘Take Back the Country.’”
In July 2010, according to the IG’s timeline: “Determinations Unit management requested its specialists to be on the lookout for Tea Party applications.”
But by the beginning of the 2012 election year, the IRS had adjusted its “be on the lookout order” to more generally target groups that were involved in teaching people about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
‘OUTRAGEOUS ABUSE’: Tea Party Rejects IRS Apology for Tax Scrutiny
[FoxNews-AP]
Published May 10, 2013
Tea Party leaders refused to accept an apology from the IRS Friday in which the agency acknowledged that it inappropriately flagged conservative groups for additional review during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said she wants to see resignations over what she called the “disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power.”
Republican lawmakers also seized on the acknowledgment, after having complained about the suspected harassment more than a year ago. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell called for a “government-wide review” to assure “these thuggish practices” are not in use elsewhere. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor later said the House would investigate.
Reaction was swift and harsh after Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, acknowledged the issue at a conference Friday sponsored by the American Bar Association.
She confirmed that organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status.
In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, she said.
Obama paid lower tax rate than secretary
[FoxNews.com]
Published April 13, 2012 – by Ed Henry
Posted CWN: April 14, 2012
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had a combined income of $789,674 in 2011 but paid a lower tax rate than the president’s secretary, who made less than $100,000, the White House confirmed Friday.
The Obamas paid an effective rate of 20.5 percent. White House aides would not reveal presidential secretary Anita Breckenridge’s tax rate but confirmed it was higher than the first family’s rate. Breckenridge earned $95,000 last year.
The Obamas’ rate is less than the 30 percent the president wants millionaires to pay under his proposed Buffett Rule.
“The president’s secretary pays a slightly higher rate … than the president on her substantially lower income, which is exactly why we need to reform our tax code and ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage told Fox News.
The release Friday of the tax returns for the president and the family of Vice President Joe Biden came on the same day in which the Obama campaign in Chicago attacked likely GOP-presidential nominee Mitt Romney for, so far, releasing only his most recent tax returns.
Buffet calls for taxing the rich while he sues IRS to avoid paying taxes [The BUFFETT Rule?]
[Examiner.com]
National Finance Examiner
April 10, 2012
Billionaire Warren Buffett knows how to separate his social activism from his business management. Over the past several months, as advisor to President Obama, Buffett has been calling for additional taxes on the rich, and telling Americans he also would like to pay more to the government.
However, on November 19th, the true side of Warren Buffett, that of the business mogul, came to light as he is now suing the IRS to avoid paying more than $600 million in taxes levied upon Berkshire subsidiary NetJets.
Prisoners May Be Preparing Your Tax Return
[PatriotUpdate.com]
January 1, 2012
A story in USA Today reports that inmates, some of them serving life sentences, have applied to the IRS to be tax preparers. Most of them did not reveal that they were incarcerated. It’s good to know that prisoners are trying to be productive members of society. It’s kind of like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption (1994) who does the books for the warden and the prison guards.
While Andy was innocent of the crime of murder that got him into prison, he used his considerable financial skills to turn the tables on the corrupt warden. He learned how to be a criminal while in prison. It’s quite a story worth watching. I suggest that you watch an edited version since the language and some of the scenes are kind of rough.
Maybe these incarcerated prisoners got their inspiration from watching Shawshank.
Obama admin attempting another Congressional end-around on ObamaCare defect
[HotAir.com]
posted at 1:55 pm on November 16, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Under ObamaCare, the IRS becomes the arbiter of health-insurance acceptability. Now Barack Obama needs the IRS to rescue ObamaCare entirely, thanks to a massive legislative defect that the President has no hope of rectifying in the new Congress. Thanks to sloppy legislative work, the PPACA’s subsidies to taxpayers won’t apply in states that refuse to create exchanges — which means that the states have a clear mechanism to block ObamaCare’s implementation.
That is, unless the IRS just bypasses Congress and corrects the law:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act offers “premium assistance”—tax credits and subsidies—to households purchasing coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. This assistance was designed to hide a portion of the law’s cost to individuals by reducing the premium hikes that individuals will face after ObamaCare goes into effect in 2014. (If consumers face the law’s full cost, support for repeal will grow.)
The law encourages states to create health-insurance exchanges, but it permits Washington to create them if states decline. So far, only 17 states have passed legislation to create an exchange.
Surprise! Warren Buffett’s Company Has $1 Billion Federal Tax Obligation
[BigGovernment.com]
Posted Oct 13th 2011 at 9:14 pm
“It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”
- Warren Buffett, NY Times Op-Ed August 15, 2011
Those high-minded and selfless words from one of the nation’s richest men inspired the Democrats’ latest push for higher taxes on job creators. It also sounds like one of the creepy slogans chanted and repeated by the aromatic “Occupy Wall St” protesters when they decry corporate greed and the doomed capitalist system.
Media Matters Puts Tax-Exempt Status in Jeopardy
FoxBusiness.com
Published August 03, 2011
Media Matters CEO David Brock
First of a three-part series
David Brock, chairman and chief executive of Media Matters for America, told a news website earlier this year that his nonprofit is now moving to “sabotage” FOX News because it says the network is now the “de facto head of the GOP,” among other things.
Anchors and guests appearing on FOX News have said because of such statements, the nonprofit is violating U.S. tax law.
There is no indication the IRS is auditing or probing Media Matters for these alleged violations.
However, interviews with current and former IRS officials, tax lawyers and tax experts, as well as a review of Media Matters’ IRS documents and its activities indicate the nonprofit has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy for reasons beyond those allegations.
Media Matters ‘War’ on Fox News Brings New Scrutiny on Tax-Exempt Status
FoxNews.com
Published June 30, 2011
The chorus is growing for the IRS to scrutinize Media Matters’ tax-exempt status as the left-leaning media watchdog group wages a “war” on Fox News.Recent questions about Media Matters’ activities stem from a campaign against Fox News that founder David Brock described in an interview this year as “guerilla warfare and sabotage.” By its own admission, the group is conducting “opposition research” against certain executives and producers. It also features a link on its website called “Drop Fox” which helps users contact advertisers and urge them to boycott the network.
C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel during the George H.W. Bush administration, said the group’s claim that Fox News is the leader of the Republican Party “is demonstrably false” and crosses the line.
O’Reilly: Revoke Media Matters’ Tax Status
Newsmax.com
Friday, 24 Jun 2011 11:29 AM
By Tom O’Connell
IRS to “revoke its status immediately,” reports ediaite.com.Former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, appearing on O’Reilly’s show, said an organization called the American Campaign Academy “run by Republican operatives” had been turned down for tax-exempt status by the IRS because of its obvious political slant, while on the other side of the spectrum, Media Matters is allowed to propagandize while not paying taxes.O’Reilly points out that the group received its status under the President George W. Bush administration. Gray said it had presented itself at the time as an organization whose aim was “distributing materials that analyze media bias.” Eventually, though, it became “a war against [Fox News] and a media boot camp…. This is not what they said and not what they were given tax exempt status for.”
Porkulus: Cash for Tax Cheats
Townhall.com
When President Obama signed the trillion-dollar stimulus law in 2009, he proclaimed that he was “keeping the American dream alive in our time.” The stimulator-in-chief failed to mention that billions would be spent keeping American tax scammers afloat on our dime.
At a congressional hearing on Tuesday, federal auditors reported on the latest porkulus spending gone wild. According to a new General Accounting Office audit conducted over the past year, nearly 4,000 stimulus recipients received $24 billion in Recovery Act funds — while owing more than $750 million in unpaid corporate, payroll and other taxes. Among the tax-cheating federal contractors and grant winners who raked in stimulus bucks, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found:
– Two social services groups with nearly $3 million in unpaid taxes each received more than $1 million in stimulus awards.
WSJ Shows Taxing the Rich Won’t Cover the Bill
HotAir.com
posted at 12:15 pm on April 18, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama told the nation last Wednesday that “improvements” in Medicare and hiking taxes on the wealthy would stabilize government spending and bring deficit spending to what can charitably be described as a dull roar. The Wall Street Journal does some fact checking on these claims and finds them entirely false. Even if the “rich” gets defined down to the top 10% of filers — whose average annual household income is $114,000 — the level of revenue from even a 100% tax would still not close the budget gap:
Consider the Internal Revenue Service’s income tax statistics for 2008, the latest year for which data are available. The top 1% of taxpayers—those with salaries, dividends and capital gains roughly above about $380,000—paid 38% of taxes. But assume that tax policy confiscated all the taxable income of all the “millionaires and billionaires” Mr. Obama singled out. That yields merely about $938 billion, which is sand on the beach amid the $4 trillion White House budget, a $1.65 trillion deficit, and spending at 25% as a share of the economy, a post-World War II record.
DNC and Dems’ Private Club Delinquent on Taxes 16 Times in 7 Years (PJM Exclusive)
PajamasMedia.com
The Democratic National Committee and the party’s private club in the nation’s capitol have been delinquent with tax payments on sixteen separate occasions over the last seven years, Pajamas Media has learned.
According to District of Columbia government records, since 2004 the Democrats’ main political committee and its National Democratic Club — an exclusive restaurant and hideaway on Capitol Hill where prominent Democrats and their guests dine — have been hit with fines and interest penalties in excess of $115,000 for failure to pay their property taxes on time.
Officials at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue reviewed tax records with Pajamas Media. Government records here and here paint a picture of two highly visible political establishments that have been tax deadbeats for most of the last seven years. This year, the club fell so far into tax arrears that it was listed as part of a D.C. government “tax sale” in August. The DNC and the club finally paid the property taxes in September to dodge a government seizure and a public auction sale.
The D.C. government requires owners of property to pay their taxes twice a year — in March and September. Records show the Democratic National Committee was delinquent six times, and the club missed payments ten times when facing the last fourteen tax deadlines.
Expiration of Bush Tax Cuts Would Cost Families Thousands in 2011, Study Shows
FoxNews.com
Published July 28, 2010
(AP Graphic)
Millions of families will be faced with thousands of dollars in tax increases if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of the year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
A preliminary report obtained by Fox News shows that several tax increases would hit hard if Congress does nothing to minimize the damage before Dec. 31.
Americans Voting with their Feet to Escape Obama Tax Oppression
BigGovernment.com
Posted Jul 17th 2010 at 5:29 pm
by Dan Mitchell
The number of wealthy Americans living in the UK who are renouncing their US citizenship is rising rapidly as more expatriates seek to escape paying tax to the US on their worldwide income and gains and shed their “non-dom” status, accountants say. As many as 743 American expatriates made the irreversible decision to discard their passports last year, according to the US government – three times as many as in 2008. …There is a waiting list at the embassy in London for people looking to give up citizenship, with the earliest appointments in February, lawyers and accountants say. …“The big disadvantage with American citizens is they catch you on tax wherever you are in the world. If you are taxed only in the UK, you have the opportunity of keeping your money offshore tax free.”
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