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MY final word on IRS scandal.


kcjenkins

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I PROMISE, this is my final post on this subject, unless something huge and unbelievable comes to light. For those of you who do not know Kip Dellinger, he is one of the most respected authors on tax subjects currently writing

Arthur J. (Kip) Dellinger, Jr., CPA Dellinger%20Pic.jpg

Kip Dellinger, CPA, is a tax controversy expert with broad expertise in the areas of CPA tax practice, regulatory discipline, and malpractice matters. He is an expert on conduct matters and substantive technical issues. Kip has been engaged by Big Four CPA firms on several tax shelter malpractice cases.

Mr. Dellinger is recognized for his work as past chair of AICPA’s Tax Division Tax Practice Responsibilities Committee (2008–2009). He has authored over 60 articles on tax practice technical and procedural topics for leading publications.

This is a recent letter on the subject he posted to Tax Talk, that covers the subject brilliantly, with expertise beyond my capacity.

Steve - they were prohibited from organizing as Sec. 527 organizations because the ones being discussed were (and this is clearly explained in all the media article - from Fox to the New York Times) established as 'issue advocacy' organizations to advocate adherence to the Constitution, opposition to Obamacare and other conservative or libertarian 'views' - a 527 needs a 'candidate or candidates for which the organization spends money in express advocacy activities (i.e. 'vote for' or 'vote against'). To the extent that these organization engaged in the later activities, the did form Sec. 527 organizations (also regulated by the Federal Election Commission).
Many of these organizations were formed to support or ballot issues in statewide elections where there's an election but no 'candidate', so every ballot issue committee is effectively a ©(4) unless a labor union or business league ©(5)s and (6)s are involved. Those organization also must form 527 if they engage in express advocacy.
The inquiries about the ©(4s were extensive, designed to intimate and to harass; for example, the inquiry indicated that the organization would have to disclose contributors even though that has never been required of c4s or c3s. This was clear over a year ago in a letter from Rep. Jim Jordan to the Asst Commissioner of TE/GE, which she follow-up upon by testifying that targeting wasn't taking place (when we now know was in fact taking place)
All Obama did was rant about the Kochs and 'secret money' and the media parroted those comments (acknowledging that the rules for 501c4 organizations permitted what was happening). This was an Administration of a political party that ranted and raved about the whole issue of 501c4 conservative leaning groups.
Did Obama or anyone in the White House directly order the behavior at IRS? Doubtful, but IRS employees - unionized and vested in ever growing government don't live in a vacuum - they read newspapers, watch TV, some of them even read Vanity Fair, if not The Nation) - or the watch Steven Colbert. And some of them, we are going to discover acted on the marching orders they perceived by watching and listening to the leaders of their chosen political party and their media champions - because they could.
Protected by their powerful union and believing they could conceal their activity, or that IRS would never disclose what they were doing because of the circle the wagons mentality of an organization where there is only two political appointees - Commissioner and Chief Counsel (who doesn't count in a situation such as this). One would bet that Lois Lerner, Asst Commissioner at TE/GE never informed Commissioner of the matter and while it appears that Asst Commissioner, Steve Miller, knew of the problem, one can bet - as a career guy and former head of TE/GE - he circled the wagons and didn't inform Doug Schulman either.
It's happened before, we did not find out about the IRS's Ideological Origins Project (again c4s primarily), initiated by President Kennedy's White House in 1961 until the post-Watergate Church Committee hearings in 1977.
Also, Commissioner of IRS is truly a non-partisan appointment approved by the Senate and Jay Carney's attempt to push the problem to a Bush appointee was both juvenile and disgusting.
For the record, I've written about the intersection of taxes and politics for nearly 20-years for Tax Notes, and my articles on the taxation of political money have appeared in the Journal of Tax Practice and Procedure, for the AICPA's TAX ADVISER magazine, the LA Daily Journal, and the San Francisco Recorder.
I represented donors to the Committee to Re-Elect the President and McGovern for President in 1972 in gift tax disputes before IRS Appeals, served as tax adviser to the Daniel Ellsberg and Pentagon Papers Fund during the Watergate era and also was tax adviser to Another Mother for Peace. Later I served as Treasurer of Citizens for the Republic (the then 4th largest PAC in the U.S.) a nice gentleman named Ronald Reagan was our Chairman Emeritus. So I've seen IRS abuse and it the chilling impact it can have in the political arena from both side and more than just academically.
Kip Dellinger, CPA
Cooper Moss Resnick Klein & Co. LLP
Van Nuys
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If Mr Dellinger is one of the "most respected authors on tax subjects" around, then the English-speaking nations are in deep trouble. People who are respected as authors generally know things like grammar, sentence structure, verb tense, verb tense agreement, proper use of pronouns--you know, things kids are supposed to learn in elementary school and practice in high school. His written communications skills are so poor that I have a hard time grasping his points. Because his writing skills are so sloppy, it makes me think the same of his critical thinking skills. He discredits his entire thesis. I will wait to draw my conclusions until I read what people who know what they are talking about (and know how to talk in proper English) have to say.

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Guest Taxed

A certain TV network is already convinced without any actual proof that the President was directly involved! They will stoke this fire as long as they can and as usual the Repubs will overplay their hand comparing this to the Nixon administration!

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The IRS did their job and it's a scandal? Of the 300 screened, a whopping 75 were TeaPublican orgs. Two lost their tax exempt status and both were liberal. One was Emerge America whose mission was the get Democratic women elected to office. I'm so sick of these manufactured "scandals". AND the official in charge was a Bush appointee.

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The IRS did their job and it's a scandal? Of the 300 screened, a whopping 75 were TeaPublican orgs. Two lost their tax exempt status and both were liberal. One was Emerge America whose mission was the get Democratic women elected to office. I'm so sick of these manufactured "scandals". AND the official in charge was a Bush appointee.

Back to the "Blame Bush" desperation game. The SENATE approves the Director of the IRS.

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Guest Taxed

I don't think the then IRS commissioner Doug Schulman ordered this or knew about it. I think it was limited to officials at the Cincinnati office.

The Teaparty groups want to sue IRS. Let's see how successful they are and what they recover??

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There are a host of people on the left desperately HOPING this was limited to the officials at the Cincinnati office. Or that maybe a few of them will fall on their swords in the interest of the "greater good". I think the underside of the bus is going to get pretty crowded.

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Well, the Barack O'Carter administration was humming along pretty well with Joe Biden channeling a very good Billy Carter.

Now that it's morphing into the Richard Mihouse Obama administration, it remains to be seen who will play the role of John Dean.

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The IRS did their job and it's a scandal? Of the 300 screened, a whopping 75 were TeaPublican orgs. Two lost their tax exempt status and both were liberal. One was Emerge America whose mission was the get Democratic women elected to office. I'm so sick of these manufactured "scandals". AND the official in charge was a Bush appointee.

Welcome to the board Dominoes, and thank you for this utterly non-hysterical comment in many falling for the latest 'scandal' inflated by the supposedly liberal media.

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Is Jay Carney beginning to act like someone who doesn't care whether or not he keeps his job? If he's smart, he will resign and claim it's a matter of principle. If not smart, he will stick around until the administration throws him under the bus, along with a bunch of people from IRS, CIA, and the State dept.

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/05/21/carney-sweats/

Will somebody please ask this man about Myanmar and make his day?

This stuff is custom-made for SNL. If they don't do a Jay Carney skit soon, their writers are just out of touch. (Or they could just run once of his recent press conferences verbatim - no editing needed.)

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Republicans are saying "going back to the tired BUSH 2 blame game." YET this supposed author is blaming KENNEDY ??

Why don't you Republicans dig up Franklin Delano Roosevelt and rake him over the SOCIALIST Social Security program. I'm sure Bill O'really can turn that into a subversive Communist plot on the part of Democrats.

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Republicans are saying "going back to the tired BUSH 2 blame game." YET this supposed author is blaming KENNEDY ??

Why don't you Republicans dig up Franklin Delano Roosevelt and rake him over the SOCIALIST Social Security program. I'm sure Bill O'really can turn that into a subversive Communist plot on the part of Democrats.

Well, speaking of old losers, wouldn't you know Jimmy Carter hit the news again. Trying to clarify his wimpy position on marijuana, I think. And this just when the comparisons were starting to shift from the Carter administration to the Nixon years. Carter just continues to show his impeccable timing. I'll bet every time he gets news coverage, somebody in the Obama administration groans. Nothing like a past failure to focus people's attention on the management shortcomings and amateurish workings of the current administration.

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Guest Taxed

Let history be the judge of various administrations. I think Republicans are overplaying their hand when some of them are calling for impeachment etc. I saw a poll from Teaparty.org.

Let the hearings conclude and let's see how high up it went before making a judgement.

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Let history be the judge of various administrations. I think Republicans are overplaying their hand when some of them are calling for impeachment etc. I saw a poll from Teaparty.org.

Let the hearings conclude and let's see how high up it went before making a judgement.

Are you sure that your house, yard and car are not red?

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Let history be the judge of various administrations. I think Republicans are overplaying their hand when some of them are calling for impeachment etc. I saw a poll from Teaparty.org.

Let the hearings conclude and let's see how high up it went before making a judgement.

History is already judging various administrations.
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Good thing we had Dubya. Looks like he had some pretty good ideas such as Gitmo, Afghanistan, Iraq, National Security, Drone Warfare. After all, most of the successful Obama counterterrorism policies are a continuation of the Bush policies - in some cases he's actually expanded them.

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Guest Taxed

I don't like some of the strong arm tactics of the Patriot act (like wire tapping without warrants etc.) BUT with growing terrorism acts all over the world that come to our shores unfortunately we have to give up some of those liberties just to remain safe. It is a different world now from what it was when the constitution was framed!

I did not like when they installed traffic cameras but I can see the value now, when I see how it caught the speeder or the fellow who jumped the light and caused the accident in the middle of the night when there were few witnesses.

As usual with such broad and powerful law the danger is if the Govt agents are overzealous?

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As a matter of fact, Iraq was a good idea - still is.

The problem is that Iraq's value is more strategic that tactical, and it depends upon future administrations (even beyond this one) to implement the strategy properly. So far, Obama has done OK even though he has tried to blow it several times. But maybe he really does understand and he's just posturing for those gullible enough to focus only on the politics - one can hope.

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