|
|
The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
|
 |
Federal News Radio
Congress vs.
the IRS vs. you
By Mike Causey
May 24, 2016
When two countries go to war, the citizen-taxpayers supply both the
funds and the bodies to pursue it. The residents of Lower Slobovi fund
their military’s just and valiant efforts. The taxpayers of Upper
Mandiville support their brave, and equally just, warriors.
The narrative in wars is nearly always the same. The other guy started
it. And the winner writes the official history.
In the case of the war between the IRS and House Republicans, the
taxpayers of the same country — as in where you live, work and pay
taxes — are paying both sides. And getting the shaft in the process.
And losing money both in taxes and services.
Congress writes tax law. The IRS carries out our incredibly complicated
and loophole-filled tax code. This one is a war between the people (the
House and Senate) who oversee and fund (sometimes, with your money) the
agency that collects the money in the form of income and corporate
taxes. Your wallet and purse make it all possible.
House Republicans believe that certain partisan high-level IRS
officials operated a system that made it very difficult for
conservative groups to get special tax breaks that have been approved
for other political organizations. They believe that it was folks in
high places in Washington — not lesser brass in the Cincinnati regional
office — that approved the road blocks for conservative groups and Tea
Party affiliates. They believe top officials covered up the system and
withheld emails that would have been the smoking-gun evidence.
The IRS has consistently said there was no wrongdoing. And there was
never a system to target conservative groups, no cabal against the Tea
Party and other conservative or libertarian organizations.
The one thing many people agree on is this: That the government is
losing lots of revenue, as in billions of dollars each year. That’s
because the IRS budget is a powerful weapon and the IRS has been
shrinking even as the number of taxpayers and tax base are growing
dramatically. And when people — often very rich people — don’t pay
their share (or anything), the shortfall is made up by the person you
have slept with every night since birth. You.
The House Judiciary Committee plans hearings today to look at evidence
collected by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
They’ve investigated IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and worst (or best
depending on your politics) case scenario that this could be step one
toward impeachment of the commissioner.
Last week, Michael Leszcz sent a heads up to members of the
Professional Managers Association. He’s president of the PMA, which has
lots of members in the IRS. But in a sense the message is to all of us,
regardless of where we work, because we all pay taxes to the same place.
“As some of you know, my father retired from his first career as an Air
Force pilot at age 48 (10,000+ hours in the air from WW 2 through
Vietnam)… went to law school at the U. of Maryland. He wanted a
storefront law practice in Dover, Delaware. He wanted to practice law
for the average person, which he did until retiring, again, at 75.
“One of the comments he left me was that he wanted people who ended up
in court… to reach an end to what sometimes turned into a never-ending
story, either a positive or a negative outcome, so they could get on
with family, the jobs and life in general.
“As many of those we have entrusted with positions of authority in
Congress are also lawyers, hopefully some of them will have a similar
perspective. Then, we can soon close on the issue of handling political
groups applying for non-profit status, so the 80,000 men and women of
the IRS can get on with their jobs of providing service to our fellow
300 million plus Americans as the IRS attempts to implement the tax
laws that have been written by those in Congress.”
Read this and other articles at Federal News Radio
|
|
|
|
