IRS Veterans Say Agents Sought to Daunt Controversial Groups

Long before their alleged scrutiny of Tea Party groups, Internal Revenue Service employees used long, complicated questionnaires to discourage organizations with controversial views from pursuing nonprofit status, says Reuters, citing interviews with former IRS officials.

The ex-officials said the tactic is not sanctioned by IRS management but has been used for decades by field staff who have wide latitude to question applicants and aim to persuade organizations to drop their cases so the agency can avoid making a ruling. It has reportedly been applied to groups across the political spectrum, including atheist, gay-rights, and pro-Israel entities.

Bill Brockner, a 30-year IRS lawyer who retired in 2006, said some staffers made a “pretty deliberate” effort to dissuade applicants by bombarding them with unanswerable queries. “The same thing applies to what they were doing in Cincinnati,” he said, referring to the IRS office at the center of the Tea Party flap.