Grassley To IRS On NRA – Fight Crime Someplace Else
As a raw junior accountant doing line-ups (Copying the account number and names on thirteen column worksheets and preparing depreciation and prepaid insurance schedules to make life easier “in the field”), I would observe a lofty senior packing his audit bag.
If Herb was nearby, the routine was always the same. “Where are you going?” Herb would ask. The senior would respond with a client name. Herb would invariably say “Bring back a check”.
And if the IRS is going to help with the deficit that is what the Commissioner should be thinking when he sends out his dwindling supply of auditors. Will they be bringing back a check? (Technically they bring back assessments and it is the collection people who bring back the checks, but that is neither here nor there.)
Investigating the NRA will not bring in any revenue to speak of, so leave it to the FBI or whoever should be looking into the matter.
GAO Reports On Charity Tax Abuse
If the IRS only has enough staff to do a hundred audits of abusive transactions involving tax-exempts, it’s hard to see how better analysis will help all that much.
“As we discussed earlier in this report, IRS’s Research, Analysis and Statistics office also has developed the capability to analyze narrative information, which it has tested on the Form 8886. However, this analytical tool is not being used operationally to review the Form 8886 or any other disclosure report. Our analysis shows that the tool has the potential to help IRS better search disclosure reports for additional information about transactions that could help IRS identify potentially abusive schemes involving tax-exempt entities.”
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.