" the IRS is unable to adequately detect
and address noncompliance, requiring honest taxpayers to shoulder a
disproportionately large share of the tax burden.
" the IRS is unable to maximize revenue
collection, contributing to the federal budget deficit.
--National Taxpayer Advocate, 2011 Annual Report to
Congress
This
gives credence to claims that IRS line staff were triaging tax-exempt
applications to better handle their workloads. It also suggests that the problem
of the huge collection gap between what is owed and what is paid won't be fixed
anytime soon. It has been estimated by the IRS's own computer analysis that
there are about a million tax returns each year that appear to contain
fraudulent information but are not audited. At a time when the federal
government is starving for revenue the anti-tax sentiments in congress seem to
extend to the collection of legally owed taxes and not just killing tax increases.
Finally, is requiring IRS agents to determine the degree of political
activity permitted by current IRS regulations an impossible job?
The
answer to this last question is yes, it is absolutely impossible. In the
increasingly polarized politics of today there are often disagreements on who
is a liberal or a conservative. The two camps can't even concur on a common set of
facts for any given topic. How can the IRS possibly create a suitable metric
for deciding which 501(c)(4) organizations have crossed the political line?
Even more importantly, why is the IRS even trying to make room for political
activity for tax-exempt organizations? The clear intent of the law excludes tax-exempt organizations from any political activity at all. This is what taxpayers should
demand in exchange for the tax break these organization receive from us.
Here
then is the real scandal. The IRS, one of the most fundamental agencies in
government, is understaffed and short on resources by congressional design.
This is true at a time when the IRS faces massive fraud and abuse, growing
anti-tax sentiments, and a groundswell of people and organizations trying to
claim tax exemptions for overtly political purposes. The IRS is trying to
police this latter situation with unenforceable and illegal regulations that have been on the books for over 60 years. We are giving tax breaks to organizations
dedicated to political propaganda. Why
isn't this the real IRS scandal?
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