Domestic Taxes

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.

Steven Miller, now the acting IRS commissioner, found out over a year ago that the agency was singling out Tea Party and conservative groups, the IRS said Monday.

The agency said that its tax-exempt and government entities division told Miller, then deputy commissioner for services and enforcement, about the improper scrutiny on May 3, 2012. Lois Lerner, who heads the section that oversees tax-exempt groups, first disclosed the targeting of Tea Party groups on Friday.

The IRS statement fleshes out the timeline of when top agency officials found about the attention given to Tea Party groups, but could also lead to other questions for Miller and agency brass as well.

Agency staffers told Miller about the scrutiny given Tea Party groups more than a month after the then-IRS commissioner, Doug Shulman, told lawmakers that the agency did not single out any groups for partisan reasons. Read more...

Chairman Camp called the targeting "astounding and appalling" and vowed to "get to the bottom of this practice."

Calling allegations "troubling," Reid says Senate will act if IG report finds need for more investigation.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has requested a bipartisan investigation into the Internal Revenue Service.

A liberal tax group on Monday challenged Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist to a lobbying duel on tax reform.

Americans for Tax Fairness offered to compete with Norquist to see who can mount the most visible campaign for overhauling the tax code.

“I’m issuing a challenge today to Grover Norquist that we’ll generate more comments from everyday Americans pressing for a more fair tax system — not one favoring the richest two percent and big corporations through special-interest tax loopholes,” said Frank Clemente, the group's campaign manager.

“If you've got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous."

The Senate Finance Committee will investigate the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, the panel's chairman said Monday.