IRS

The Internal Revenue Service headquarters building

IRS slated to hire thousands of workers, boost audits of wealthy taxpayers

BY: - April 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday detailed its plan to spend $80 billion in additional funding that Democrats approved last year as part of their climate change and health care package.  The plan says the agency will boost tax enforcement by increasing its “focus on segments of taxpayers with complex issues and complex […]

GOP’s new U.S. House “weaponization” panel to probe FBI, IRS, ATF

BY: - February 10, 2023

Will committee provide genuine oversight or pursue paranoid conspiracy theories? WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats on Thursday urged the GOP lawmakers running the new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to work with them on genuine oversight investigations that weren’t political or focused on leveling grievances.  Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said […]

COMMENTARY

Weekend humor from Celia Rivenbark: Wacko pols turn their paranoia toward the IRS

BY: - October 22, 2022

Fearmongering politicians claim the IRS is hiring 87,000 agents, arming them, and ordering them to kick down the door at Meemaw’s trailer home to scare the grits out of her if she’s behind on her taxes. That’s a terrifying scenario or would be if it were true. Which it’s not. To these folks, “fact” is […]

The Internal Revenue Service headquarters building

The political right’s efforts to defund the IRS are an attack on societal health and well-being

BY: - September 27, 2022

The Internal Revenue Service needs a lot more funding and staff – not less In December of 2019, my mom died. A couple of months later, the pandemic overtook American society and as with so many other aspects of modern life that quickly took on an extra level of complexity and difficulty during those harrowing and chaotic months, settling her affairs got a good deal more challenging. One notable example: dealing with her taxes.

U.S. House GOP outlines agenda in bid for control in the midterms

BY: - September 26, 2022

Republicans promise to limit abortion access, rollback improvements to IRS WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans gathered inside a warehouse in Southwestern Pennsylvania last Friday to outline the legislation they’d try to enact if voters give them back control of that chamber following the November midterm elections.  Speaking from an HVAC factory in Monongahela, about an […]

COMMENTARY

Don’t claim to support law enforcement if you demonize the FBI and IRS

BY: - August 15, 2022

This may come as news to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and many of his fellow Republicans:  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is a law enforcement agency. So is the Internal Revenue Service. Most people already think of the FBI as an elite policing agency. But the IRS also investigates crime beyond tax evasion and fraud. […]

What if the government filled out your tax form for you?

BY: - April 18, 2022

As midnight approaches on Monday, countless Americans will be ready to finally hit the send button on their computers to get their federal and state tax forms on their way to Uncle Sam. They’ll do that after having spent days pulling together receipts and forms, having shelled out money for computer software to help them […]

IRS says N.C. Department of Public Instruction owes nearly $250,000 in back taxes

BY: - August 11, 2016

Officials with the IRS say the North Carolina agency that oversees the state’s public schools owes the federal government almost $250,000 in back taxes, according to an IRS letter obtained by Policy Watch this week. The letter, which was dated July 12 for the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI), centers around an ongoing dispute […]

Documents confirm IRS targeted liberal groups as well as conservatives

BY: - June 25, 2013

Not that anyone expects it to tamp down the out-of-control paranoia on the right wing, but new documents released by the I.R.S. offer strong confirmation that the supposed conspiracy to target conservative nonprofits was, in fact, nonexistent. As the New York Times reports this morning: “The instructions that Internal Revenue Service officials used to look […]

The link between the IRS scandal and redistricting in North Carolina

BY: - May 16, 2013

No, the above headline is not a typo or even a logical stretch. There is actually a close relationship between the two subjects. Here’s why: Although all the facts have yet to come to light, the recent scandal in Washington related to the wrongful targeting of conservative groups by Internal Revenue Service officials appears to be just that: a scandal. Every […]