IRS Delinquent in Handling Tea Party Cases, Report Says
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. The IRS would have to suspend tax audits, the Small Business Administration's processing of loan applications would be halted and National Parks would close if the federal government is forced into a partial shutdown because of the budget impasse in Congress.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThe management of the IRS was “delinquent” in its treatment of Tea Party groups seeking nonprofit status and the agency’s poorly planned efforts to address the issue “ended in predictable failure,” according to a U.S. Senate report released on Wednesday.
The report is the first bipartisan inquiry into how the Internal Revenue Service treated politically oriented nonprofit groups when they applied for tax-exempt status. It also provides new details about the actions of Lois Lerner, the agency’s former director of exempt organizations.