[EL] Wall Street Journal IRS Atmosphere Timeline

[henry weinstein]

Test
On Jun 10, 2013 10:28 AM, <BZall at aol.com> wrote:

> **
> No one seems to be reacting to the *Wall Street Journal* column
> attempting to use a timeline to explain how "low-level" IRS agents might
> find it necessary to scrutinize 1024s from some groups more than others,
> asking otherwise inappropriate questions about volunteers and individuals.
>
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323844804578529571309012846.html?mod=opinion_newsreel
>
> This echoes a debate at last week's First Tuesday Lunch meeting where one
> set of public policy attorneys (my own term for lawyers who specialize in
> both campaign finance and exempt organization law) discussed with another
> set whether there was direction, either explicit or tacit, from the
> Administration. One set remembers Austan Goolsbee very well; others not so
> much, and the discrepancy taints the analysis of current events.
>
> We have long known that the IRS reads the newspapers, as you would expect
> them to. The question is whether they consciously or unconsciously absorb
> some of the campaign rhetoric, and if they do, whether it is absorbed
> evenly or not. In an area where confirmation bias runs rampant, as
> evidenced by recent posts to this list, are we training IRS agents to avoid
> it? Even lawyers who read some IRS publications have no clue about how the
> political rules actually work. In many cases, it takes years to understand,
> just as you expect in any other complex area. There's no real evidence of
> that type of training in the IRS, and the TIGTA report indicates that
> training sessions were either late or incomplete. Was Judy Kindell, the
> resident guru on political matters in the IRS EO Division, consulted in
> 2009, when this whole mess began? Apparently the isolation of Cincinnati
> imposed by the 2003 IRS reorganization bore its bitter fruit, fertilized by
> a continual lack of resources, in that time period.
>
> Perhaps the point is one also made at last week's lunch: the real problem
> here is that IRS Determs was using audit techniques instead of reviewing
> applications. That may have been because the agents were fearful that some
> of what was being said in the media (as opposed to the applications) was
> true, and sought to get to the bottom of it. That is not necessarily a bad
> thing if you are tasked with determining how organizations will operate in
> the future (itself an incredibly difficult task), particularly with
> charities. But these were c4s, where political activity is perfectly
> lawful. Audit techniques are likely inappropriate when an organization does
> not have a track record, and will only result in shutting down the smaller
> and newer organizations who can't afford the skilled counsel who can simply
> stare down the inappropriate questions or call the managers they already
> know to complain. It is all well-and-good to question the competence of
> low-level employees who made mistakes, but we should look at the system to
> see the real structural issues.
>
> Barnaby Zall
> Of Counsel
> Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP
> 10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500
> Bethesda, MD 20817
> 301-231-6943 (direct dial)
> bzall at aol.com
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