Washington – The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
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Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.
Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.
Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.
Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.
Anybody getting fired? Who am I kidding, this is the IRS. Violating constitutional rights is what they do every day. They are apologizing for getting caught.
Old news. These liberal bigots….
another way Obama is trying to silence his political enemies
This would have made Richard Nixon proud.
Wow I didn’t know America reached a new low level…
Just because they didn’t agree to vote for Obama the IRS felt entitled to bully!!!
Seriously?? An apology?? Someone should be going to jail for this.
For those politically predisposed to shrug this away because it’s only happening to conservative organizations, please note that this activity is called abuse of power; exactly the type of criminal, tyrannical behavior the framers of the constitution specifically had in mind to prevent when they created our purposefully complicated, strategically limited system of governance.
Ironically, this is a stark justification for those who join and support these tea party-type organizations, as they were formed to defend the nation from the threat of government overreach.
Apologizes! Abuse of power! Not accepted!
“low level workers” my foot
So is it okay for me to just avoid paying taxes for years and if caught just apologize
and be off the hook?
This is not good enough. There should be an open investigations and given anybody on the committee family and close relatives to be exempt any attempt by the IRS to launch any and all investigation to their tax return. The irs is like a cancer and they go after anybody they don’t like. If congress tries to limit their power they go after the congressman, family and friend. A criminal investigation is in order since what they were doing is trying to control elections. Who do you think order this; hint begins with o and ends with a, probably through Vallerie Jarett; who also should be investigate concerning Benghazi
They’re probably going to audit anyone who complains about this.
Charlie Hall where are you?
Whoever exposed the IRS for doing this, it’s only because Obama’s black. And exposing them is politically motivated so there should be no hearings on this. And if there will be, CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC better not give the hearings any coverage.