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IRS Scandal: Oversight from Washington, All Along
National review Online ^ | May 21, 2013 | Elias Johnson

Posted on 05/22/2013 7:24:32 PM PDT by lbryce

From the outset, Internal Revenue Service lawyers based in Washington, D.C., provided important guidance on the handling of tea-party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, according to both IRS sources and the inspector general’s report released in mid May.

Officials in the Technical Unit of the IRS’s Rulings and Agreements office played an integral role in determining how the targeted applications were treated, provided general guidelines to Cincinnati case workers, briefed other agency employees on the status of the special cases, and reviewed all those intrusive requests demanding “more information” from tea-party groups. At times, the Technical Unit lawyers seemed to exercise tight control over these applications, creating both a backlog in application processing and frustration among Cincinnati agents waiting for direction.

An IRS employee who asked not to be identified tells National Review Online that all members of the agency’s Technical Unit are based in Washington, D.C. A current list of Technical Unit managers provided by another IRS employee shows that all such managers are based at the agency’s headquarters on Constitution Avenue in the District of Columbia, and the IRS confirmed, in a testy exchange with National Review Online, that the Technical Unit is “based in Washington.”

Advertisement According to the IRS source, who is based in Cincinnati, complex cases are routinely elevated to the Technical Unit for guidance. Many of the questions that agents sent to groups most likely came “from Tax Law Specialists — lawyers — in D.C.,” the Cincinnati employee explains. “With tea-party cases, questions from the Tax Law Specialists were way too aggressive,” he says. The Washington Post described these lawyers as parsing “the murkier, more complex applications” — including those of tea-party groups.

This account comports with the one laid out in the inspector general’s report, although this aspect of the report has been neglected in much of the press coverage. On May 17, 2010, according to the IG report, Determinations Unit specialists in Cincinnati handling tea-party applications were instructed to “send additional information request letters to the Technical Unit for review prior to issuance.” Ten days later, the Technical Unit “began reviewing additional information request letters prepared by the Determinations Unit.”

The IG report indicates this became a source of frustration, and specialists in Cincinnati pressed for a streamlined approach. “Why does the Technical Unit need to review every additional information request letter when a template letter could be approved and used on all the cases?” they asked via e-mail. The Washington unit rejected this approach and, in February 2011, was developing individualized letters itself. According to the IG report, an update from the Technical Unit acting manager to the Determinations Unit manager indicated, “Letters were being developed and would be reviewed shortly.”


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; 201005; 20100517; 20100527; 201102; cincinnati; determinationsunit; dncrico; gettherope; igreport; impeachnow; inquisitors; intimidation; irs; irsrico; irsscandal; lawyers; loislerner; obama; obamarico; politicalpersecution; ratbastards; religiouspersecution; rico; snooping; spying; teaparty; technicalunit
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To: agincourt1415

Of course Barry knew nothing. Nothing.


21 posted on 05/22/2013 8:46:22 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: hoosiermama; Nachum

PA – R – Patrick Meehan

Meehan asks IRS officials: “Where is the accountability?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9DaIG8UwdY

Determination unit had made requests to DC – yes –
Technical unit is located in DC

From article - paragraph 2

Officials in the Technical Unit of the IRS’s Rulings and Agreements office played an integral role in determining how the targeted applications were treated, provided general guidelines to Cincinnati case workers,


22 posted on 05/22/2013 9:13:42 PM PDT by Whenifhow
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To: SoldierDad
Obozo praying to Satan?

No. To himself.

23 posted on 05/22/2013 10:02:21 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: molson209

Has he had to answer to anyone?


24 posted on 05/23/2013 1:40:24 AM PDT by wastedyears (I'm a gamer not because I choose to have no life, but because I choose to have many.)
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To: Route395

“Some people will assume I’ve done something wrong. I have not.”

“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook.”


25 posted on 05/23/2013 1:49:45 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: Cheerio
Remember the dinosaur media telling us in 2012 how the Tea Party was dead, that the movement had petered out, . . . ?

You are darn right. There is no question that Hisself turned every available federal agency into an arm of His campaign.

If for no reason other than self-preservation, the GOP MUST deal with this usurpation, this excuse of a President.

26 posted on 05/23/2013 2:21:00 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Repeal the 17th Amendment.)
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To: Jacquerie
I am very concerned that if the GOP-e leadership does not show more aggressiveness against this culture of corruption now running rampant in the WH, they will lose the House to San Francisco values once again. IF THAT OCCURS, it is the end of the GOP.
27 posted on 05/23/2013 7:00:32 AM PDT by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: lbryce

28 posted on 05/23/2013 7:35:49 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Windflier

He’s too damned full of himself to be Satan.


29 posted on 05/23/2013 7:46:47 AM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier who has survived 24 months of Combat deployment.)
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To: Windflier; SoldierDad

SoldierDad: Obozo praying to Satan?

Windflier: No. To himself.


The difference????


30 posted on 05/23/2013 10:11:38 AM PDT by Peet (Come back with a warrant.)
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To: Peet

Satan would be much a much more intelligent individual. He would not make as many mistakes as this clown has. The only reason Obozo isn’t embroiled in impeachment hearings is because the media keeps saving his arse. Satan wouldn’t need the media.


31 posted on 05/23/2013 10:19:34 AM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier who has survived 24 months of Combat deployment.)
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