The Tea Party Gets an Apology from the IRS
A representative of the Internal Revenue Service has issued a verbal apology to a number of Tea Party groups that were asked an unusually complex set of questions to justify their non-profit status.
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In early 2012, a number of groups affiliated with the Tea Party complained that the IRS was requesting an enormous amount of detailed information as it considered their tax exempt status. In February of that year, Fox News reported on the concerns.
In letters sent from IRS offices in Cincinnati earlier this month, chapters including the Waco (Texas) Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council were asked to provide a list of donors, identify volunteers, financial support for and relationships with political candidates and parties, and even printed copies of their Facebook pages.
"Some of what they (the IRS) asked was reasonable, but there were some requests on there that were strange," Toby Marie Walker, president of the Waco Tea Party told FoxNews.com. "It makes you wonder if they do this to groups like ACORN or other left-leaning groups.”
Apparently not. During a conference earlier today, Lois Lerner, the IRS staffer in charge of non-profit designations, apologized for the unusual request, according to the AP. Lerner said that "low-level workers" in Cincinnati began additional reviews of organizations that included "tea party" or "patriot" in their names.
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At the time of the groups' initial complaints, some lawyers explained why additional reviews might be warranted.
"These tea party groups, a lot of their material makes them look and sound like a political party," said Marcus S. Owens, a lawyer who advises tax-exempt organizations and who spent a decade heading the IRS division that oversees such groups. "I think the IRS is trying to get behind the rhetoric and figure out whether they are, at their core: a political party," or a group that would qualify for tax-exempt status.
As the AP notes in its brief story on the apology, non-profits can engage in a limited amount of political activity.
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The Blaze reported on some of the questions the IRS asked of a group in Ohio, as detailed by the group.
A search of the IRS database indicates that at least three organizations did receive tax exempt status: Chestertown Tea Party Festival Inc. in Maryland, Tea Party Magazine in San Francisco, and Ellas Tea Party in Phoenix.
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Members of the Tea Party — the name of which is often said to be an acronym for "taxed enough already" — embrace the principle that the size of government should be reduced. Today's developments are unlikely to weaken that belief.
