Audit time.
An obscure bureaucratic policy that allowed IRS officials to target conservative and tea party tax-exemption applicants during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns is still in place, meaning the same abuses may be continuing, according to a nonprofit government watchdog.
The federal tax agency’s policy requires IRS officials to stop processing tax-exempt applications that are “likely to attract media or congressional attention,” the Cause of Action Institute said in a report made public Wednesday.
The policy also directs IRS officials to prepare “sensitive case reports” for their supervisors and to ignore “the merits of the application” if it involves a newsworthy topic.
“Targeting was—and is—IRS policy, not a violation of it,” the report said, noting that the policy is still in place. “As a result, American taxpayers are at risk for similar treatment in the future.”
“In halting the applications, preparing such reports and referring the matter to supervisors, including political appointees, IRS employees behaved exactly as agency rules dictated,” the report continued.
The IRS delayed hundreds of applications from conservative and tea party groups beginning in 2010. A federal court recently ruled the IRS is still targeting groups using the policy.
The policy “automatically politicizes the process in an attempt to avoid potential embarrassment,” according to the report. Partisan officials can use the “vague and open-ended” policy “to selectively delay and obstruct those applications receiving higher scrutiny without a way to hold the officials accountable for their decisions.”[…]
“Seven years after the targeting scandal began, the rule that enabled this inexcusable behavior still exists,” the report said. “Until that rule is removed from the internal manual used by all IRS employees, targeting of political opponents will remain a very real threat.”
Cause of Action Institute noted that the IRS has the authority to change its policy without legislation.
“Given the amount of criticism the IRS has received regarding its targeting practices, it is hard to believe the agency has not yet taken the steps needed to remedy the problem,” the report said.