LETTER: Political Targeting and Lawlessness at IRS Should Not Be Rewarded

Lawmakers are raising questions about political targeting at the IRS, since it appears the agency violated a standing legal order when it denied a conservative organization tax exempt status, on the basis that certain Bible teachings are politically affiliated. Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), Oversight Subcommittee Republican Leader Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) led Ways and Means Republicans in a letter to Commissioner Rettig: 

“We write to express serious concern that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) violated a valid consent order by initially denying the application for tax exempt status submitted by Christians Engaged. If the IRS has the power to violate a standing legal order without consequence, how can Americans trust the agency with greater authority and $80 billion more taxpayer dollars?”

CLICK HERE to read the full letter. CLICK HERE to watch the GOP meeting with expert testimony from the American Center for Law and Justice, Christians Engaged, and the First Liberty Institute. 

BRADY: With Its History of Political Targeting, Why Would We Reward the IRS with Greater Power Over Sensitive Taxpayer Data?

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The IRS’s bad old days of tax discrimination are back.

• The last time President Biden was in the White House, the IRS spent years targeting conservative tax-exempt groups.
• Reportedly, the IRS believes certain Bible teachings are “affiliated with the [republican] party and candidates” and used this as a basis to deny tax exempt status to a non-profit organization.

President Biden’s plan to supercharge the IRS will result in more audits of taxpayers at all income levels. Farmers, families, and small businesses are the true targets of this dangerous expansion of the IRS.

• President Biden’s proposal to spend $80 billion on an army of auditors and to turn local banks into chapters of the IRS to report on the gross transactions of your personal and business bank account is unacceptable to the American people.
• Nonpartisan CBO analysis assumes that under the President’s proposal audit rates would “rise for all taxpayers”–including EITC audits and those of other lower and middle-income workers.
• As Republicans wrote in a recent letter, “Even the $10,000 de minimis annual threshold would sweep up the bank information of nearly every American with a job.”
• According to local banks, the President’s financial reporting regime would expand the types of account holders currently subject to reporting and would require significant system changes.
• Because the reporting is different from current reporting, taxpayers will face substantial increases in tax preparation time and costs.

READ: Myth vs Fact: Opposing Biden’s Bank Surveillance Scheme

Republicans are fighting to stop Democrats’ IRS snooping scheme, hold the agency accountable, and protect taxpayer privacy. 

• Ways and Means Republicans are committed to protecting American taxpayers from government overreach and from breaches of privacy like the one being proposed by the Biden Administration. 
• In June, Reps. Brady and Kelly called on Commissioner Rettig to address their concerns surrounding the tax-exempt denial for Christians Engaged.
• Republicans have introduced the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act to stop the Biden Administration’s invasive snooping scheme.

Republicans have also introduced the Tax Gap Reform and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enforcement Act, which allows for a better understanding of the tax gap, provides smarter enforcement, ensures the IRS uses all of the resources at its disposal, and addresses the expertise gap at the IRS.