this is for the lefties and pretend libertarian people who love their tin foil hat images.. http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...-obama-irs-improperly-targeted-conservatives/ ... In an August 9, 2013, memo, Schiller admitted the IRS used political labels in targeting the groups for special scrutiny and possible audit and that, going forward, the agency would screen organizations based only on their activities, “not words” or “labels of any kind:” As Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel has said, the IRS has taken decisive action to eliminate the use of inappropriate political labels in the screening of 501(c)(4) applications. IRS policy is now clear that screening is based on activity, not words in a name. The new steps and current policies were outlined in the June 24 report, which noted: “In the absence of BOLO lists, the Determinations Unit will continue to screen for information affecting the determination of applications for tax exempt status, including activity tied to political campaign intervention, but it [will] be done without regard to specific labels of any kind.” The 30-day report also reflects the June 20, 2013 memorandum, which was issued to officially suspend the use of the BOLO list in the screening process. The documents also include a “Dear [Applicant]” letter that offers an “expedited process” for 501(c)(4) groups in exchange for restriction on their activities: This optional expedited process is currently available only to applicants for 501(c)(4) status with applications pending for more than 120 days as of May 28, 2013, that indicate the organization may be involved in political campaign intervention. In this optional process, an organization will represent that it satisfies, and will continue to satisfy, set percentages with respect to the level of its social welfare activities and political campaign intervention activities (as defined in the specific instructions on pages 5-7). These percentage representations are not an interpretation of law but are a safe harbor for those organizations that choose to participate in the optional process. In short, the Obama IRS, after lawlessly delaying the approval of Tea Party group applications, tried to extort restrictions – which had no basis in law – on these very same groups. On September 30, 2013, Acting Director, Exempt Organizations, Kenneth C. Corbin, sent a memo to IRS staff providing detailed guidance on classifying applications when “‘merit approval’ is not an option,” emphasizing that the determination is to be based on “facts and circumstances,” not “words and labels:” Classifier reviews the application and determines if it should be routed to a specialty group. This determination is based upon facts and circumstances of the stated activities within Part II of the application rather than names or labels. This is consistent with Karen Schiller’s August 9, 2013 memorandum … The Schiller and Corbin memos came on the heels of the May 14, 2013, Inspector General report revealing that the IRS had singled out groups using conservative-sounding terms such as “patriot” and “Tea Party” when applying for tax-exempt status. The IG probe determined that “Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of past and future donors)” and “delayed processing of targeted groups’ applications” in advance of the 2012 presidential election. No wonder the Obama IRS hid these records. These new smoking-gun documents contain admissions by the Obama IRS that it inappropriately targeted conservative groups. But the records also show that the abuse continued – as the Obama IRS tried to force conservative applicants to give up their First Amendment rights in order to finally get their applications granted.
In case you missed it, the Tea party was the group that helped eliminate The jerkoffs from the Bush admin so not sure you can say he was on the Tea Parties side. Bush was closelier aligned with Obama, than the Tea Party was with Bush. Why do you think Jeb was polling at like 3 percent despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars?
Actually the only thing anyone can reasonably fault the IRS for is not coming down much harder and much faster on all of these political organizations masquerading as "social welfare agencies". These organizations lied to the IRS so they could, they thought, conceal their donor's names. The principal administrators of the these organization should have all gone to jail. They certainly new the requirements for 501c4, but yet 100% of them violated the rules, as proven when their returns were filed. Ergo, they all lied when requesting pre-certification from the I.R.S.!; they never had any intention of spending most of their time and money on social welfare work. Some of them, later, even had the gall to claim that telling folks how to vote in fat cat sponsored political ads was 'social welfare work'! "Naturally, assuming your I.Q. is above 100, you'd recognize "Patriot" and "Tea Party" in the name of these organizations as a dead giveaway that the organization was political; these words are not associated with soup kitchens! The only place to go for correct information re IRS handling of 501c4 applications is ProPublica.org. Breitbart is where you want to go if you are after "alternative facts" . https://www.propublica.org/