Archives for 2014

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August 7, 2014                                 Mary Beth Hutchins, (202) 400-4232

Cause of Action Submits Statement to House Oversight Committee
Demonstrating IRS’s Improper Use of Tax Code to Block Transparency

Washington, DC – Cause of Action (CoA), a government accountability organization, submitted a Statement for the record today to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) highlighting the Federal Government’s inconsistent and overbroad application of taxpayer confidentiality laws, therefore blocking transparency.  The Statement accompanies an OGR hearing on the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) abuses and targeting of conservative and libertarian groups.

“It’s alarmingly clear that the IRS improperly interpreted the tax code in order to hamper government transparency,” said Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein.  “The IRS is picking and choosing when and how the law is convenient for its purposes, which is just wrong. Its actions are frustrating public access to records that may demonstrate wrongdoing by Federal officials. Therefore, Congress needs to start us down the path of meaningful reform by preventing agencies from continuing to use laws intended to protect taxpayers as a sword against political enemies and shield for political allies.”

Cause of Action’s Statement for the Record addresses a number of key issues:

• The IRS chooses when and how to release records based on the agency’s level of interest in keeping the subject matter hidden from scrutiny.
• The IRS at times misuses law that was intended to protect confidential taxpayer information as a shield to prevent access to records that could show wrongdoing by Federal officials.
• The IRS, when confronted with its inconsistent use of the law, shockingly stated that the agency is not bound by the actions of its managers.
• The IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration denied access to records about the unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information to the White House, relying upon an overbroad interpretation of the law.

Read the Statement for the Record here.

About Cause of Action:

Cause of Action is a non-profit, nonpartisan government accountability organization that fights to protect economic opportunity when federal regulations, spending, and cronyism threaten it.  For more information, visit www.causeofaction.org.

To schedule an interview with Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein, contact Mary Beth Hutchins, mary.beth.hutchins@causeofaction.org

Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein commented on the new report, “The Chain of Environmental Command,” released by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works revealing how collusion amongst a handful of individuals, environmentalist groups and the government is shaping public policy:

“Despite our request nearly two years ago to TIGTA to investigate organizations violating their tax-exempt status through fiscal sponsorship, the agency has done nothing and as the Committee’s new findings show, the abuse of fiscal sponsorship is obviously still a problem.  While the IRS seems to be over-inclusive in auditing legitimate nonprofits that differ politically from the Administration, they have been under-inclusive in their oversight of politically favored groups who are actually abusing the law. Even the President has spoken out against millionaires and billionaires ‘bankrolling whoever they want, however they want, in some cases undisclosed.’ But what EPW’s report shows is the environmental movement is following the very model President Obama criticized, manipulating the tax code in the process, with no repercussion from the IRS. Cause of Action has asked the IRS to take simple steps to define the rules for fiscal sponsorship, but they refused to do so, protecting their political friends, while targeting their political enemies.”

Read our report on fiscal sponsorship here.