[EL] Another IRS misstep?

[Allen Mattison]

I wanted to flag a new aspect of the IRS story.  Yesterday the IRS published this Q&A<http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Questions-and-Answers-on-501%28c%29-Organizations>.  The last question is:


14. How many centralized applications have been approved?

Since centralization, more than 175 applications have been approved to date. As with all applications for tax-exempt status that are approved, the names of organizations whose applications have been approved<http://www.irs.gov/file_source/PUP/newsroom/Approved%20Tax%20Exempt%20Applications%20For%20Advocacy%20Organizations%20through%20May%209%202013.pdf> are publicly available.

The link goes to a list of the 175 organizations that were subject to centralized review.  Yes, the names of all approved exemptions are publicly available (and 501(c)s must provide their Form 1023 or 1024 application materials upon request, so it's possible a requestor could deduce the organization was subjected to additional questioning, if the requestor happened to ask for a Form 1024 from an organization that was targeted).  But it seems unprecedented that the IRS would provide a list of organizations that aroused suspicion of political activities, especially given the questions regarding whether this suspicion was raised properly.

Some groups have decided to announce that they faced extra scrutiny and harassment.  If groups want to self-identify, that's their right, but the IRS shouldn't force this disclosure upon groups.

Can others think of analogous situations of the IRS identifying organizations it subjected to scrutiny without finding any violation?

_______________________________
Allen Mattison
Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold, PLLC
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