Lois Lerner Skates
No surprise here – Obama’s Justice Department declared, just the other day, that IRS (in the person of the now famous Lois Lerner) really did nothing nefarious in its myriad investigations and scrutiny of various nonprofit “Tea Party” groups relative to their tax exemption applications. Obama’s boys have decided that there will be no charges filed against Lerner, or anybody else amongst the Revenooers.
According to Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik, Justice has found “substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. But poor management is not a crime……We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution. We also found no evidence that any official involved in the handling of tax-exempt applications or IRS leadership attempted to obstruct justice. Based on the evidence developed in this investigation and the recommendation of experienced career prosecutors and supervising attorneys at the department, we are closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges.”
So there.
The conclusion obviously leaves Darrell Issa (R-California) cold after his House Oversight Committee spent a few years chasing all of this down.
“The Justice Department’s decision to close the IRS targeting investigation without a single charge or prosecution is a low point of accountability in an administration that is better known for punishing whistleblowers than the abuse and misconduct they expose.”
And more IRS news came down last week – good news, the Revenooers say, for we and thee: new “protections” being put in place for next filing season, relative to preservation of taxpayers’ identity.
Quoth Commish Koskinen, “Joining me today are representatives from the electronic tax industry, the software industry and the states. These members of our Security Summit group have collaborated with the IRS on this effort from day one. We began mapping out a strategy in March, and together we have made significant progress in just a few months……I’m delighted to report that, for next year’s tax filing season, we are on track to fulfill our goal of having new safeguards in place for taxpayers when they file their returns……Most of these new protections will be invisible to taxpayers, but behind the scenes we are putting in place a multi-layered, multi-faceted approach……We’re going on offense like never before.”
Ahhhhhhhhhh, we feel so much better now, secure in the knowledge that IRS is truly on top of things.
CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISOR – This article contains general information about various tax matters. You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation.
Jeff Quinn, the author of this article, is a shareholder in Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, Ltd., with offices in Incline Village and Reno. He welcomes comments, and can be reached at [email protected].
