Posted on 05/15/2013 7:51:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train.
'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.'
That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder of the group Linchpins of Liberty. He had submitted his application 13 months earlier.
'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' he asked MailOnline.
It's 'an impossible question to answer fully and truthfully,' he said, 'without disclosing the names of anyone I ever taught, or would ever teach, including students.'
Like the leaders of many tea party-affiliated groups whose tax-exemption applications have become the subject of angry complaints, Kookogey called the IRS's inquisition an overreach, 'especially considering that my organization mentors high school and college students.' It 'should send chills through your spine,' he told MailOnline, 'that the government would ask me to identify those I teach, and to provide details of what I teach them.'
The 13-month delay, while burdensome, was far shorter than those some other groups endured. According to a report released late Tuesday by the IRS's Office of Inspector General, the average delay at one point was 574 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
They were working at the behest of someone. It sure wasn’t someone in the IRS!
The real objective was to stall applications, or pressure applications to be withdrawn, so as to hamper conservative groups’ ability to fund-raise and educate people leading up to the 2012 election.
Given this, how much longer until gun, ammo and equipment retailers are required to turn over to the IRS the names of customers?
That doesn’t even look like an official Fed. govt. form.
Who wrote these questions?
Time to turn a Special Prosecutor and an army of computer forensics specialists loose on the IRS.
FU-IRS! Provide a list of all potential future clients? How are you supposed to know that?
...which was promptly turned over to Homeland Security
“Ihre papieren, bitte.”
The activities of the IRS rival those of the gestapo in their bare-faced fascism. Shameful.
Ping.
This could very well be part of Valerie Jarrett's "payback."
As a college student who has been outspoken about my conservative beliefs in the classroom, this does not surprise me, but it also very troubling (raging understatement).
Undoubtedly but it went even further. ProRepublica reports it received information from applications (I don’t recall the exact number). I also noticed in some of the IRS requests posted the incredibly short time given for a response, usually 2 to 3 weeks. Considering the volumes of information that was being requested and the fact many of these organizations are staffed by volunteers, that was a call to drop everything or hire a specialist to compile information, and possibly an attorney as well.
If you didn’t respond in time you had to prove your delay was reasonable (but based on whose opinion of reasonable) to keep the request alive or even have the right to appeal. I can also see this being used to harass with perjury charges in the future since the information requested was nearly impossible to provide with any degree of certainty.
This was an out and out assault to permanently shut down any opposition to government.
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