Must-read ProPublica. … Continue reading
Category Archives: tax law and election law
Legal Times reports. … Continue reading
Edsall: “The continuing effort of House Republicans to characterize the IRS-Tea Party debacle as an example of a Democratic administration harassing conservative independent expenditure groups ignores the genuinely deleterious effects of slashing the federal tax collection budget.” … Continue reading
Lloyd Mayer blogs. … Continue reading
Thomas says: Contrary to the president’s allegation to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly on Feb. 2 that there is “not a smidgen of corruption,” the IRS scandal is going from bad to worse as newly released emails have revealed even more information. Now, the … Continue reading
PunditFact: Will likened the events at the IRS to Watergate. That’s his right as a Washington pundit, but we found little evidence (in fact, no one has) linking the actions of the IRS to the Obama White House in the … Continue reading
Politico Morning Tax: LATEST IRS DRAMA, PER A NEW BATCH OF EMAILS — DOJ CONTACTED LERNER ABOUT PROSECUTING SOCIAL WELFARE GROUPS. Two days before Lois Lerner broke the IRS scandal news at a tax law conference, the Department of Justice … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
USA Today: The Internal Revenue Service is prepared to rewrite a proposed rule regulating the political activities of non-profit groups to address complaints from the right and left that it goes too far, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Monday. “In … Continue reading
Alec MacGillis for TNR. … Continue reading
Legal Times reports. … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
If you read one thing on the latest IRS revelations, make it this from ProPublica. … Continue reading
NYT: House Republicans on Wednesday formally asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to begin a criminal investigation of Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official caught up in the scandal over political targeting of Tea Party groups. The … Continue reading
The Washington Examiner reports. UPDATE. More stories: WSJ National Review Politico … Continue reading
WaPo: “Internal Revenue Service employees urged callers to vote for President Obama, disparaged Republicans in conversations with taxpayers and wore pro-Obama swag to work during the 2012 election cycle, according to a federal ethics watchdog.” … Continue reading
Release: In a March 27 letter to the IRS, Alliance for Justice called on the Service to issue an immediate clarification about the treatment of activities to influence executive and judicial appointments and nominations made in the recent Notice of … Continue reading
The latest from Montana. … Continue reading
Fred Wertheimer blogs. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. Attorneys for the House of Representatives concluded this week that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has legal standing to pursue contempt charges against former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner. The determination, outlined in a 22-page … Continue reading
Press release: “Organizations that would be most affected by new rules governing nonprofits are overwhelmingly calling on the IRS to continue the rulemaking process, according to a new analysis by Public Citizen’s Bright Lines Project. In fact, 67 percent of … Continue reading
Paul Caron blogs, and adds, “For more, see Donald B. Tobin (Ohio State), The 2013 IRS Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?, 142 Tax Notes 1120 (2014).” … Continue reading
Francis Barry writes for Bloomberg View. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Peter Overby reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Larry Ottinger has written this piece for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. … Continue reading
ProPublica reports. … Continue reading
NYT: “Friends of Abe, a loose fellowship of Hollywood conservatives, will be recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization, a lawyer for the group confirmed on Sunday. “Friends of Abe was recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity … Continue reading
Peter Overby: “The financial package for Ukraine itself has strong support in Congress. But Democrats want to add another element, boosting the lending power of the International Monetary Fund. Many Republicans never liked the IMF, but they might be persuaded … Continue reading
Intimidating the IRS and Protecting “Dark Money” Groups (Meredith McGehee) FEC Agrees with Campaign Legal Center that Former Rep. Towns Violated Ban on Personal Use of Campaign Funds … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
Roll Call: “Darrell Issa has apologized to Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking Democrat Elijah E. Cummings for cutting off his mic, but the chairman isn’t changing the course of his committee. The California Republican issued a 141-page report Tuesday … Continue reading
Must-read CQ Weekly Cover story by Eliza Newlin Carney: Unlike super PACs, which are not allowed to coordinate their activities with parties or candidates, a for-profit company need not keep politicians at arm’s length. And unlike politically active tax-exempt groups, … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
Interesting WSJ report. … Continue reading
Paul Ryan blogs. … Continue reading
Norm Ornstein’s latest. … Continue reading
Peter Overby reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Wisdom from David Firestone ( NYT ed) on the OFA scandal. … Continue reading
Bob Bauer blogs. … Continue reading
Chuck Todd for NBC News: “To sum up, OFA acknowledges that the executive director John Carson actually set up two meetings for a potential donor to discuss his own legal problems, one with an official from the White House and … Continue reading
The Hill reports. … Continue reading
Politico reports. … Continue reading
Wow. … Continue reading
NBC News: A White House-backed advocacy group has fired one of its fundraisers and returned a $100,000 check she collected from a New Jersey doctor who is seeking a presidential pardon for Medicare fraud, officials of the group told NBC … Continue reading
Read his comment: (h/t John Pomerantz) … Continue reading
Bauer blogs. … Continue reading
Comments from Commissioners Goodman, Hunter, and Petersen. Who says the FEC is not still split along ideological/party lines? … Continue reading
WaPo: “A controversial proposed IRS regulation that seeks to define political activity for nonprofit social welfare organizations drew more than 122,000 comments before Thursday night’s deadline, a gargantuan sum that underscores difficult task now facing the Treasury Department.” … Continue reading
FEC Commissioners Ravel and Weintraub have submitted comments (for themselves, not for the FEC) to the IRS on its proposed 501(c)(4) rulemaking. I’ve gotten tons of press releases and links to various comments submitted to the IRS on this rulemaking. … Continue reading