IRS

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IRS Handed Out $1M in Bonuses— to Workers Who Owed Back Taxes

And almost double that amount to other workers with disciplinary problems

(Newser) - The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said yesterday. More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including...

Rumsfeld to IRS: I Have 'No Idea' If My Taxes Are Right

Former defense secretary gets snarky with IRS

(Newser) - Can't make heads or tails of your taxes? Well don't feel too bad, because at least one former secretary of defense can't either. Donald Rumsfeld sent his tax returns the IRS along with a cheeky letter informing them that he has "absolutely no idea" whether they'...

TurboTax Tricks People Into Fighting Free Tax Prep
TurboTax Tricks People Into Fighting Free Tax Prep
propublica
Apr 15, 2014 2:42 PM CDT

TurboTax Tricks People Into Fighting Free Tax Prep

Lobbyist with ties to software maker plants stories with community leaders: ProPublica

(Newser) - It sounds like an uncontroversial proposal: The IRS could set up a simple, optional, online tax tool, filling out your forms automatically using info the government has on file. Yet over the past year, community leaders have been coming out of the woodwork against such a thing. Rabbi Elliot Dorff,...

House Panel Seeks Criminal Inquiry of Ex-IRS Official

Republicans send letter to Justice Department as Democrats cry foul

(Newser) - Last year's IRS scandal is back in the headlines. The House Ways and Means panel today formally asked the Justice Department for a criminal investigation into retired IRS official Lois Lerner, reports the Hill . Republicans on the committee pushed the vote through, alleging that emails show Lerner sought to...

IRS Won't Treat Bitcoin Like Currency

It will be taxed like property instead

(Newser) - Virtual currencies like bitcoin will be taxed like property—not currency, the Internal Revenue Service said today. The IRS says bitcoin is not legal tender, meaning you can't use it to pay your taxes. However, if you receive wages in bitcoin, you have to pay taxes on it just...

Ex-IRS Honcho Takes Fifth at Hearing, Again

Lois Lerner previously refused to answer questions

(Newser) - The former head of the IRS division that targeted Tea Party groups has once again been brought before Congress—and once again refused to testify, as her lawyer warned would happen. Lois Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination at a hearing today before the House Oversight Committee, the...

Charges in IRS Targeting Scandal? Not Likely

FBI doesn't see evidence of criminal wrongdoing, sources say

(Newser) - Don't expect any criminal charges related to last year's IRS scandal . Law enforcement officials tell the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that the FBI doesn't plan to file any charges over the increased scrutiny experienced by various political groups that applied for tax-exempt status....

IRS Targets Secret Campaign Cash

Administration looks to limit big-spending groups' political activity

(Newser) - The IRS and Treasury Department are looking to crack down on 501(c)4 groups—tax-exempt organizations that spent a reported $309 million in last year's election without having to reveal their donors. The groups (which the IRS code defines as promoting "the common good and general welfare") are...

Is Obama Truly in Dark on Secrets of White House?

On issue after issue, he's said to be 'in the dark': Dana Milbank

(Newser) - For a guy who's allegedly in charge of the executive branch, President Obama sure seems unaware of a lot of key issues, writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post . There's the NSA spying on world leaders, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, Obama found out about this...

Rep to IRS Official: Pal Around With the Devil Much?

Democrat's questioning mocks Darrell Issa's investigation

(Newser) - Just because the government is in shutdown mode doesn't mean Congress isn't taking care of pressing matters. See this exchange picked up by Mediaite between Rep. Gerald Connolly and Sarah Ingram Hall of the IRS yesterday. (Spoiler alert: Democrat Connolly is actually taking aim at Darrell Issa's...

IRS Honcho at Heart of Tea Party Scandal Retires

Lois Lerner had been on paid leave

(Newser) - An official at the center of the IRS' tea party scandal is retiring, the agency announced today. Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted...

IRS' Lousy Trump Parody Cost $10K

House committee releases another of the training vids

(Newser) - Remember the IRS training videos that parodied, or tried to parody , Star Trek and Gilligan's Island? Well, the House Ways and Means Committee has found another, this one a takeoff of Donald Trump and The Apprentice, reports CNN . "Another day, another example of abuse and waste at the...

IRS Gives Its Blessing to Married Gay Couples

Same-sex spouses get same treatment as hetero couples

(Newser) - It's another milestone for gay marriage, this one involving joint tax returns. The IRS says it will recognize all legally married gay couples, even if they no longer live in states that allow same-sex marriage, reports LGBTQ Nation . They can move wherever they want, and their federal tax status...

IRS Posted 100K Social Security Numbers Online: Watchdog

They belonged to tax-exempt political groups' donors

(Newser) - As if the IRS didn't have enough on its plate . Now, the agency has accidentally posted thousands of Social Security numbers—perhaps 100,000, according to one observer—on a federal website. The IRS confirmed the story, initially spotted by Public.Resource.Org . The IDs were posted on a...

House Panel: IRS' Lerner Waived Rights

Republicans demand she return to testify again

(Newser) - Darrell Issa isn't done with Lois Lerner. Lerner, you might recall, is a central figure in the fizzling IRS scandal, who invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when testifying before Issa's House Oversight Committee. But today the committee voted that Lerner had waived her right not to testify by...

Charged to IRS Cards: Porn, Romance Novels, Kazoos

New report finds some charges weren't exactly business-related

(Newser) - The IRS is under fire again (must be Wednesday), this time for allowing employees to expense items such as popcorn machines, Nerf footballs, and stove top hats on taxpayer-funded credit cards. A new report by the Treasury's inspector general for tax administration looking at spending over two financial years...

IRS Also Screened for 'Israel,' 'Progressive,' 'Occupy'

New chief admits screening was broader, longer than previously thought

(Newser) - Tea Party groups weren't the only ones targeted by the IRS. Documents obtained by Bloomberg reveal the agency also used terms such as "Israel," "progressive," and "occupy" when applying extra scrutiny to groups seeking tax-exempt status. New agency chief Danny Werfel earlier confirmed that...

IRS Agent Who Eyed Tea Party Is Republican: Top Dem

Elijah Cummings says partisan politics wasn't involved; Issa begs to differ

(Newser) - The top Democrat investigating the IRS scandal says that an IRS manager who identifies as a conservative Republican fueled the targeting of Tea Party groups, leading Rep. Elijah Cummings to conclude that partisan politics weren't involved and "the case is solved." As Reuters reports, Cummings yesterday unveiled...

IRS Suspends 2 Over Ethically Dubious Party

Meanwhile, Cincinnati workers blame Tea Party scandal on DC

(Newser) - The plot has thickened around not one but both of the scandals embroiling the IRS. In Ridiculous-Conference-Gate news, the agency has suspended—and intends to fire—two managers who violated ethics rules by accepting improper gifts. Among those gifts: $1,162 worth of free food, which was used to throw...

IRS' New Headache: Dance Video

House Republicans salivate over new evidence of abuse

(Newser) - Another day, another cringe-inducing instance of the IRS looking tone deaf: The latest embarrassment comes via the House Ways and Means Committee, which Friday released a video of IRS employees line-dancing to the "Cupid Shuffle"—on the taxpayer dime. The video is apparently what passed for entertainment at...

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