IRS Employees Saw Concerns With Some Tea Party Groups

The Internal Revenue Service said it started using “tea party” as a shorthand in examining non-profit groups because employees had specific concerns about some groups with that name.

“IRS employees had seen cases of organizations with the name Tea Party in which political activity was an issue that needed to be reviewed for compliance with legal requirements,” the agency said in a question-and-answer document sent to reporters today. “Because of the increased inventory of applications, this inappropriate criterion was used as a shortcut to centralize similar cases.”