IRS Selectively Targeting

[heironymouspasparagus]

I had a dystopian novel habit for a while as a teenager. I read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. But there are others as well, like October the First is Too Late, Lucifer's Hammer, and more.  Many were based in the nuclear paranoia of the cold war.

A Boy and His Dog.  Available on DVD!!

Slaughterhouse 5.   Billy Pilgrim!!  I always seem to confuse him with Billy Idol for some reason...

[Hoss]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/06/18/rep-elijah-cummings-releases-a-full-irs-interview-transcript/

[Conan71]

Screw sequestration!!! We want our bonuses!!!

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees' union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

The directive was written by Danny Werfel, a former budget official who has since been appointed acting IRS commissioner.

"The IRS always claims to be short on resources," Grassley said. "But it appears to have $70 million for union bonuses. And it appears to be making an extra effort to give the bonuses despite opportunities to renegotiate with the union and federal instruction to cease discretionary bonuses during sequestration."

The IRS said it is negotiating with the union over the matter but did not dispute Grassley's claim that the bonuses are imminent.

Office of Management and Budget "guidance directs that agencies should not pay discretionary monetary awards at this time, unless legally required," IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said in a statement. "IRS is under a legal obligation to comply with its collective bargaining agreement, which specifies the terms by which awards are paid to bargaining-unit employees."

Eldridge, however, would not say whether the IRS believes it is contractually obligated to pay the bonuses.

"In accordance with OMB guidance, the IRS is actively engaged with NTEU on these matters in recognition of our current budgetary constraints," Eldridge said.

The National Treasury Employees Union did not respond to requests for comment.

The IRS has been under fire since last month, when IRS officials acknowledged that agents had improperly targeted conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections. A few weeks later, the agency's inspector general issued a report documenting lavish employee conferences during the same time period.

Three congressional committees and the Justice Department are investigating the targeting of conservative groups. And key Republicans in Congress are promising more scrutiny of the agency's budget, especially as it ramps up to play a major role in implementing the new health care law.

Much of the agency's top leadership has been replaced since the scandals broke. President Barack Obama forced the acting commissioner to resign and replaced him with Werfel, who used to work in the White House budget office.

In a letter to Werfel on Tuesday, Grassley said the IRS notified the employee union March 25 that it intended to reclaim about $75 million that had been set aside for discretionary employee bonuses. However, Grassley said, his office has learned that the IRS never followed up on the notice. Instead, Grassley said, the IRS negotiated a new agreement with the bargaining unit to pay about $70 million in employee bonuses.

Grassley's office said the information came from a "person with knowledge of IRS budgetary procedures."

"While the IRS may claim that these bonuses are legally required under the original bargaining unit agreement, that claim would allegedly be inaccurate," Grassley wrote. "In fact, the original agreement allows for the re-appropriation of such award funding in the event of budgetary shortfall."

Werfel wrote the directive on discretionary employee bonuses while he was still working in the White House budget office. The directive was part of the Obama administration's efforts to impose across-the-board spending cuts enacted by Congress.

The spending cuts, known as "sequestration," are resulting in at least five unpaid furlough days this year for the IRS' 90,000 employees. On these days, the agency is closed and taxpayers cannot access many of the agency's assistance programs.

Werfel's April 4 memorandum "directs that discretionary monetary awards should not be issued while sequestration is in place, unless issuance of such awards is legally required. Discretionary monetary awards include annual performance awards, group awards, and special act cash awards, which comprise a sizeable majority of awards and incentives provided by the federal government to employees."

"Until further notice, agencies should not issue such monetary awards from sequestered accounts unless agency counsel determines the awards are legally required. Legal requirements include compliance with provisions in collective bargaining agreements governing awards."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Senator_IRS_to_pay_70_million_in_employee_bonuses/20130619_335_0_WASHIN656656?subj=298

[Gaspar]

Screw sequestration!!! We want our bonuses!!!

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Senator_IRS_to_pay_70_million_in_employee_bonuses/20130619_335_0_WASHIN656656?subj=298

Is it just me, or does the IRS seem to think it now has more power than the president or congress?  Ever since handing the healthcare of the nation over to them, they seem to have acquired quite an inflated image of themselves.

[Red Arrow]

Is it just me, or does the IRS seem to think it now has more power than the president or congress?  Ever since handing the healthcare of the nation over to them, they seem to have acquired quite an inflated image of themselves.

It's just you.  They were already inflated.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Is it just me, or does the IRS seem to think it now has more power than the president or congress?  Ever since handing the healthcare of the nation over to them, they seem to have acquired quite an inflated image of themselves.

What Red Arrow said....

Yeah, they already thought that way about themselves.

[Gaspar]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/3/irs-targeted-dr-ben-carson-after-prayer-breakfast-/

Obama turned IRS weapon on Dr. Ben Carson after his remarks at the prayer breakfast.


IRS found nothing except that Dr. Carson is a dirty racist Tea Bagger, and bitter clinger.

[Townsend]

Obama turned IRS weapon on Dr. Ben Carson after his remarks at the prayer breakfast.

IRS found nothing except that Dr. Carson is a dirty racist Tea Bagger, and bitter clinger.

I heard about this.  Obama was on hold with the help desk forever.

[Gaspar]

I heard about this.  Obama was on hold with the help desk forever.

+1
Now that was funny.

[Gaspar]

DOJ now says 1.1 million document database contained legally protected taxpayer information, returns it to IRS

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, today sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen demanding more information after new revelations that the IRS transmitted 21 disks, constituting a 1.1 million page database of information from 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)in October 2010.  After the Justice Department turned over the database to the Oversight Committee this month in response to a subpoena, the Justice Department says it was informed by IRS officials that it contains legally protected taxpayer information that should not have ever been sent to the FBI and it now plans to return the full database to the IRS.

“We were extremely troubled by this new information, and by the fact that the IRS has withheld it from the Committee for over a year,” write Issa and Jordan to IRS Commissioner Koskinen.  “We were astonished to learn days ago from the Justice Department that these 21 disks contained confidential taxpayer information protected by federal law.  We ask that you immediately produce all material explaining how these disks were prepared and transmitted to the FBI.”

n an e-mail dated October 5, 2010, former IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner asked Richard Pilger, an official with the Justice Department’s Election Crimes Branch, about his formatting preference for “the disks we spoke about.” Pilger forwarded Lerner’s e-mail to an FBI agent, writing, “This is incoming data re 501c4 issues.  Does FBI have a format preference?” He then responded to Lerner, “Thanks Lois – FBI says Raw format is best because they can put it into their systems like excel.”

http://oversight.house.gov/release/irss-lois-lerner-database-tax-exempt-organizations-sent-fbi-weeks-2010-midterm-elections/

[Conan71]

What’s the big deal?  We all know the DOJ is decidedly non-partisan.   

[Gaspar]

What’s the big deal?  We all know the DOJ is decidedly non-partisan.   

They just needed to wait until no one was looking.

. . .and no one is looking.

[Gaspar]

Lets all put on our shocked faces.



the Internal Revenue Service informing the Committee that they have lost Lois Lerner emails from a period of January 2009 – April 2011.  Due to a supposed computer crash, the agency only has Lerner emails to and from other IRS employees during this time frame.  The IRS claims it cannot produce emails written only to or from Lerner and outside agencies or groups, such as the White House, Treasury, Department of Justice, FEC, or Democrat offices.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=384506

[Conan71]

Check with NSA, I bet they have them.  Or Edward Snowden.

“Lois’ dog ate her homework."

[Gaspar]

Check with NSA, I bet they have them.  Or Edward Snowden.

“Lois’ dog ate her homework."

The IRS must have some very sophisticated equipment. I have set up quite a few mail servers and clients of all flavors, and have never come across one that will selectively lose emails to/from some groups but not emails to/from others.

Funny that the IRS requires businesses to maintain a level of compliance, but seem to lack even the most basic archiving themselves.

This is probably the worst excuse ever, because only an idiot would believe it.