Domestic Taxes

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sat down Tuesday with the acting IRS commissioner, Steven Miller, as the heat over the agency's scrutiny of Tea Party groups intensified.

A Baucus spokesman said the Finance chairman "didn't pull any punches" in the meeting with Miller. "It was a tough talk," the spokesman, Sean Neary, said in a statement.

The meeting came shortly before an awaited Treasury audit of the IRS's singling out of conservative groups began circulating, which found "ineffective management" at the agency and said the IRS would need to do more to regain the public's trust. Read more...

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) announced Tuesday that it planned to sue the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), accusing it of leaking confidential tax documents to a political rival.

The group, which opposes same-sex marriage, said it was yet another victim of the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, accusing the agency of leaking confidential tax documents to the same-sex marriage advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

"Not only has the IRS retaliated against conservative, small-government and tea party groups as they apply for recognition of tax exemption AND lied about it, but it has criminally released our confidential tax return including the identity of dozens of major donors to a political enemy,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “In addition to being our principal combatant in the war on traditional marriage, the HRC’s president at the time was serving as a Co-Chair of President Obama’s reelection campaign. This is a chilling set of circumstances that should ring alarm bells across the nation.”

The top two lawmakers on the House's powerful tax-writing committee are requesting all documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) related to the agency singling out groups based on their politics. 

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and panel ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) sent a letter to the IRS on Tuesday calling on acting Commissioner Steve Miller to turn over any documents that details their targeting of Tea Party and any other groups they might have looked at more closely. 

“I am astounded and appalled that the IRS targeted organizations based on their political beliefs," Camp said.

"The IRS’s repeated failure to be truthful is completely unethical and an embarrassment to this government," he said. 

Probe will look into whether the IRS broke laws by targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

IRS, other scandals could make it harder for Obama to govern. Read more...

Steven Miller, the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, on Tuesday apologized for the growing scandal over the political targeting of conservative groups and said the agency “should have done a better job.”

Officials in Washington, D.C., and California sent questionnaires to Tea Party groups asking about their voter outreach efforts.

The uphill battle to simplify the complex tax code by winnowing tax breaks and lowering tax rates could take a step back.

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said Monday that it's hard to believe that IRS officials didn't tell lawmakers about the agency's targeting of Tea Party groups for a year.

Camp, whose panel is holding a hearing on the matter on Friday, said that the agency's apologies won't cut it, and that IRS officials should be prepared to answer tough questions.

“It is almost inconceivable to imagine that top officials at the IRS knew conservative groups were being targeted but chose to willfully mislead the committee’s investigation into this practice," Camp said in a statement. Read more...

The White House and top lawmakers from both parties on Monday called for broad investigations of the IRS.