Monday, March 19, 2012

Editorial: IRS must verify tax-exempt status of independent political organizations

Editorial: IRS must verify tax-exempt status of independent political organizations

click link above for full

snip


Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has it right. "Sending the IRS on a politically motivated witch hunt," he said Friday, "is simply unacceptable and could have a chilling impact on the constitutionally protected right to free speech."
Therefore, the IRS must scrupulously avoid any taint of political favoritism as it aggressively pursues investigations of possible tax code abuses by political advocacy groups. It must disregard the groups' liberal or conservative leanings, and, if it finds abuse, it must come down hard on the violators.
To be fair, that's not exactly what Mr. Hatch had in mind. The senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee was trying to discourage the IRS from conducting such investigations, which he suspected were an attempt by Democrats to get the agency to impede fundraising and electoral spending activities by groups with conservative agendas.

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note:  tea party has accused IRS of witch hunting. 

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