You have to file a tax return, and you have to be careful. You have to sign it under penalties of perjury. And you have to maintain receipts, logs and proof. And doubts are usually going to be resolved against you. It is understandable that some taxpayers are going to think about these things when they trudge through their returns and get ready to file. And they may think about the IRS stonewalling too. Is the playing field level?
Much ink has been spilled over the dog at my homework excuses emanating from many in our government. When the IRS targeting scandal was uncovered 2 years ago, many Democrats said there was never a smidgen of corruption. Many continue to say that the IRS did its best, no one hid anything, crashes happen, etc. Besides, they will note, these conservative organizations have too much power anyhow. So if the IRS had rogue agents, or if someone did get a little confused about the law down at the IRS in Cincinnati, where’s the harm?
They say it was a ‘witch hunt’ that went on way too long. If so, it is no one’s fault but the government’s, including IRS Chief John Koskinen. Rather than transparency, we had obstructionism at every turn. Commissioner Koskinen recently had a chance to apologize for gaffes and untimely notification of Congress that the tax agency had lost thousands of emails sought by investigators.
At a hearing Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, noted a letter that Mr. Koskinen sent the Senate Finance Committee saying the IRS had handed over everything. Curiously, the letter didn’t even mention that the former Exempt Organizations chief Lois Lerner’s emails had been lost. Mr. Koskinen defended his actions: “Absolutely not. We waited six weeks to tell while trying to find as many of the emails as we could. We gave you all of Ms. Lerner’s emails we had. We couldn’t make up Lois Lerner emails we didn’t have.”
Of course, it took the Inspector General to find the emails, proving they weren’t destroyed. Yet there, too, Mr. Koskinen remained defiant. The IRS chief took criticism from Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., about a recent TIGTA report showing that the IRS re-hired poor performing employees. Some were guilty of misconduct, even tax delinquency. Koskinen deflected responsibility and said they were just seasonal or temporary workers.
It is another disappointment in the long and sordid story of the Lerner e-mail information. Meanwhile, the organization called Judicial Watch is still on the hunt and still claiming that the Department of Justice is going to extreme lengths to avoid turning over much of anything. Even the time records that would show the number of hours a DOJ Attorney Barbara Bosserman expended on the investigation of IRS targeting. The Judicial Watch suit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch, Inc. vs. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:14-cv-01024)).
Meanwhile, David Axelrod, formerly an Obama Administration senior adviser, said that he is proud of the fact that President Obama has never been involved in a major scandal through six years in office. Yes, you heard right. Of course, other observers might say that the IRS scandal certainly seems to qualify as a scandal. Heck, perhaps Benghazi and Fast & Furious were too?
Indeed, in the case of the IRS, as long as Mr. Axelrod was going to give the party line, perhaps Mr. Axelrod might have better used a well-worn phrase: ‘not a smidgen’ of scandal corruption.
For alerts to future tax articles, follow me at Forbes.com. Email me at Wood@WoodLLP.com. This discussion is not intended as legal advice, and cannot be relied upon for any purpose without the services of a qualified professional.
via The Tax Lawyer http://ift.tt/17QTIvf
johnmarkwendler 