internal revenue service

With news of the IRS targeting Tea Party groups evolving everyday, one constant has remained - politics. We have Republicans out there going as far as saying impeachment of President Obama could be a possibility and everyone else trying to make this an anchor on the Oval Office. For example, yesterday Rand Paul said this:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) claimed Sunday that the Internal Revenue Service had a "written policy" that said agency officials were "targeting people who were opposed to the president."

"And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy," Paul told CNN.

This is typical Rand Paul. He always makes claims like this to get his base in an uproar, but never produces anything. It really puts that extra sleaze level in politics.

But there is something that exists. Evidence that Republicans knew that the IRS was targeting Tea Party groups as far back as last June has surfaced:

Already, a string of detailed IRS questionnaires to largely conservative groups has stirred complaints among tea party activists and caught the attention of election lawyers. The agency’s “scrutiny is likely a prelude to future IRS investigations into the tax-exempt status of current 501(c)(4) organizations, potentially including major groups supporting President Obama and Republican candidates,” stated a recent memo circulated to clients by the law firm Clark Hill.

That article appeared on Roll Call on June 7, 2012. Of course that doesn't mean that Republicans noticed, or did they?

With news that the IRS was targeting conservative groups, the right has a true scandal on their hands. The IRS is not to be used as a political tool and this kind of activity should give everyone of us reason to worry, despite our ideological beliefs.

Luckily Congress is going to be holding hearings into this scandal, as they should. But, as with any of these scandals, comes time for political posturing. For example, yesterday George Will actually floated impeachment of President Obama over this. Of course we don't know if anybody in the administration was actually involved and the IRS commissioner at the time of the scandal was actually a Bush appointee.

Now if it does turn out that someone in the Obama administration was directly involved, I would support action against that person. If it turns out that Obama himself was involved, then let's start the impeachment process and I will back it 100%. But what we don't need right now is intellectual midgets, like George Will, out there spreading false blame. We also don't need Congress to distort the investigation into a political witch hunt. After all, we are investigating those political witch hunts and justice is not served by engaging in yet another. Instead we need a truly open investigation that examines all the facts and only the facts.

And something else to remember on this. Republicans had every reason to rid themselves of the Tea Party. After all, the Tea Party has proven to be a much bigger asset to the left than the right. They go out and primary Republicans, who have held onto seats for a long time, and end up winning that primary, only to lose the seat to a Democrat in the fall. The Tea Party is the very reason the GOP is dying today, so motivation for a Republican to go after them is much higher than that of a Democrat.

The House Republicans are determined to expand the role of the IRS:

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they'd have to detemine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

I wonder how this is going to fix the deficit or create jobs? Well it might to do the latter:

"Were this to become law, people could end up in an audit, the subject of which could be abortion, rape, and incest," says Christopher Bergin, the head of Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit tax policy group. "If you pass the law like this, the IRS would be required to enforce it."

Yeah we would need more IRS auditors, but of course that would cost more money.

Instead of letting Congress vote on one, the IRS went ahead and gave it to them:

The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of Citigroup and a few other companies partially owned by the government. As a result, Citigroup will be allowed to retain billions of dollars worth of tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value when the government sells its stake to private investors.

I wonder if the IRS would be as generous to you or me? I know the answer to that as someone who has had to deal with them on back taxes.

This is total bullshit and will become another key issue in 2010. Americans are suffering and still can’t find work, yet the administration continues to pander to the people who caused this economic catastrophe. When will the regular citizens get the attention they so much deserve?

Adding… Considering the IRS answers to Treasury, which is lead by Timothy Geithner, how much more will the Obama administration support him? I think a great progressive issue to take up in Congress right now is getting rid of the incompetent jack-ass. President Obama likes to pressure Congress – now it’s Congress’ turn to pressure him. Fire Geithner or watch as we shut down the Congress. I’m sure that will quickly become a bi-partisan movement.

The entire UBS mess is getting even uglier, and by uglier I mean better:

The curtain is being peeled back on the infamous secrecy of Swiss banks.

The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS, agreed Wednesday to reveal the names of wealthy Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts to evade taxes.

The change in policy is the result of UBS' admitted role in conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. As part of the agreement, the bank will pay $780 million in damages, and also close all offshore accounts of its American clients.

It is not clear how many names will be divulged, but the Feds have been looking into roughly 19,000 accounts, according to the New York Times.

So we are going to see which rich bastards have been abusing the system. This is a thing of beauty and could end up becoming a massive clean up in our financial sector.

Now I really wonder how much money the U.S. has lost because of this?

How much lower could our taxes actually be, because the rich has been screwing the system?

Hopefully this is the start to the end of offshore banking and these kind of scams. I don’t care if your worth $30 billion, you need to follow the same rules as the person worth $30 thousand.

Why? Because if you make any kind of living before trying to get confirmed to the government then you are under fire:

The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

But that isn’t enough. You also better hope that none of the companies you work for have any kind of tax problems:

The panel is seeking information on his relationship to a nonprofit firm called EduCap Inc. that is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. EduCap and a sister firm donated $50,000 to Mr. Panetta's institute and provided flights on its corporate jet to Mr. Daschle and other Washington figures.

This is just amazing and I blame the Democrats for it. Why aren’t they out there hammering the Republicans about this? “Why are the Republicans holding up the confirmation of someone heading our intelligence agency during a time of war?” Instead they pussy foot around and the Republicans start hammering their messages home.

Hell I remember back during all the bird flu stuff. The government was pushing a vaccine from a single company that so happened to be the very company Donald Rumsfeld ran before becoming Defense Secretary. But that was fine and dandy – I mean he had to make a living before government – right? That’s what the Republicans say, but that seems to have changed now.

Last week we heard how Bush was pandering to the richest Americans even more by eliminating jobs at the I.R.S. that are charged with looking into the tax returns of these people:

The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others.

The administration plans to cut the jobs of 157 of the agency’s 345 estate tax lawyers, plus 17 support personnel, in less than 70 days. Kevin Brown, an I.R.S. deputy commissioner, confirmed the cuts after The New York Times was given internal documents by people inside the I.R.S. who oppose them.

So do we really need these lawyers? Wouldn't the richest people in the country actually be the most honest people around? After all, they are the ones who can afford to pay their taxes - aren't they?

Enter today's New York Times and this little tid-bit of information:

So many superrich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct, according to a Senate report that provides the most detailed look ever at high-level tax schemes.

Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the New York Jets football team, Robert Wood Johnson IV; the producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” children’s show, Haim Saban; and two Texas businessmen, Charles and Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000 were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush.

We have had a daily dose of Republican absurdness for the past couple days, but here are a couple that just really stand out to me.

First up is Senator Charles Grassley, who has now found a fight against prostitution and sex trades and a way to fight them:

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote Wednesday morning on the pimp tax. The bill also calls for more jail time for sex workers.

If passed, the provision will authorize at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.

"Recent headlines have focused on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup in Germany," Grassley said. "This vile crime is under our noses in the United States, and it's a no-brainer to have the IRS go after sex traffickers. Prosecuting these tax code violations can get these guys off the street and yank from their grasp the girls and women they exploit."

Yes the IRS is the perfect police. Let them go after Pimp Daddy when he accidently makes an extra deduction on his schedule C. Of course the police in the towns with these problems have no idea where the criminals are, but the IRS sure does. But wait. It gets even better:

Grassley said the problem is "especially horrible" when underage girls are involved.