Corruption: A federal court has harshly judged the IRS for harassing conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. We hope this brings far more trouble for the agency than it gave those groups.
Don’t think we’re downplaying what happened to these organizations. The IRS committed a serious offense. Its conduct was beyond outrageous. It held up nonprofit-status applications from Tea Party and conservative groups for political reasons, singled out the groups for unforgiving scrutiny and was actively looking for right-of-center organizations to grind in its 21st century inquisition.
On Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals censured the IRS, ordering it to turn over the list of groups it had targeted so that a class-action lawsuit filed by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots against the tax collector can move forward with those groups as plaintiffs. An agency that has long acted above the law has now been told it is accountable. This is significant.
The three-judge panel was not sparing in its judgment. It noted that “among the most serious allegations a federal court can address are that an executive agency has targeted citizens for mistreatment based on their political views.” It also told the IRS lawyers that they had conducted themselves in a manner unworthy of the government’s tradition of impartiality and decency as they fought the lawsuit.
With the list in hand, the aggrieved parties have improved their chances of receiving justice. But they are not the only victims. The IRS has a long and deserved reputation of being an abusive agency. Using the tax collector to persecute political opponents is a hoary practice that goes back as far as Franklin Roosevelt, who tried to ruin politicians and newspaper publishers alike. Ideally, this latest episode of misconduct should be the beginning of the demise of the IRS as we know it.
Granted, the government needs a tax collector because even a properly shrunken government would need revenue. But the tax code is much too complex, and that complexity gives the IRS a great deal of the power it abuses. If the current code were replaced with a flat income with few or no breaks, or by a consumption tax, and the corporate tax was properly reformed, then the size and scope — and power — of the collection agency would be curbed.
Low rates would also be needed. Current high rates are an incentive to cheat, and therefore harsh enforcement is used to ensure across-the-board compliance.
Of course there’s no such thing, so the IRS views all taxpayers with suspicion because a few cheat. This has created an unhealthy — hostile, really — relationship between the government and the people. Taxpayers would prefer to take a field trip to Hades than endure an audit.
And for good reason. The IRS probes, pricks, agitates and bullies during fishing expeditions in which ordinary Americans are treated as criminals. Without a warrant, the IRS has the authority to demand to examine any American’s personal papers and financial documents. It can seize private property with no trial. Agents have been known to dig into private lives just because they see someone driving a nice car.
For some within the walls of the IRS, all this is sport.
How can such an agency exist in a free society? But then, we’re not truly free if the IRS or any other agent of the government has the latitude to carry on as the IRS has for decades. Free people don’t live in constant fear of a government inquiry and are not perpetually afraid that the tax collector’s boot will suddenly land on their neck. Nor are they ever anxious that an innocent slip-up will wreck their lives.
And they don’t have to spend more than a dozen hours and thousands of dollars every year filling out forms to be in “voluntary” compliance with a code that is impossible for the average person to comply with.
Thoroughly revolutionizing the tax-collecting process has to be a top priority for the next president.