Here, this should get your blood boiling. Hat tip to @Tim who just drew my attention to this article at Politico.
Kerrey: IRS advocate to blame for scandal
I am just stunned by the chutz·pah of this Democrat to try and deflect political fallout on the Dems.
We need some Brockers to weigh in.
I am beginning to think this IRS scandal which broke Friday has some legs. It was above the fold on the front pages of two local Bellingham papers today. I think we can use this attention to tell a broader story of IRS misdirected energies and persecution of American’s abroad with their OVDPs and FATCA administration!
Here is my comment. Add yours.
That is just such Nonsense!!!
Nina Olson as been a GREAT advocate for Taxpayers, and her reports to Congress constantly point out what the IRS is doing wrong, and they just ignore her.
As a by product of Congressional inaction on her reports, the IRS management ignores her too.
Let me give you an example. She has filed a TAD, (TAX Advocate Directive) on the IRS 2009 OVDP “Bait and Switch” in the IRS voluntary disclosure programs for offshore accounts, only to be stonewalled by Commissioner Shulman and ignored.
The Commissioner refused to respond publicly as required and refused to rescind their secret suspension of the famous FAQ 35. That had serious impacts on many non-willful offenders of the FBAR rules that the IRS hadn’t even bothered to put in their own publication 54 prior to that time.
She even reported on this in her Report to Congress and THEY, meaning KERRY, did absolutely NOTHING!!! ZERO, NADA
See MPS 12, from 2011 report to Congress
http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/userfiles/file/2011_ARC_MSP%2012.pdf
This is just Kerrey, covering his and fellow Democrat asses, while trying to deflect attention from their own failure to read her reports and act on her recommendations.
He also doesn’t want you to know of his own complicity in voting for FATCA and allowing the IRS to continue its offshore jihad against Americans living abroad by applying Draconian penalties and generalized punishment for ALL Americans Abroad, for the sins of Homeland offshore tax evaders!
Lead story on PBS tonight…
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june13/irs1_05-13.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/jan-june13/irs2_05-13.html
I long for the day when there are similar attention to actions directed against American’s abroad via OVDP and/or FATCA
Love to hear Ms Olson’s side of the story. Until then, I’m siding with her.
“Kerrey, who lost a bid to return to the Senate last year, will work as a client project leader for the firm as contracted through his corporate entity, Kerrey & Co. The firm said he will be directing “projects of significant merit and scale across a variety of industries.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/personnel-notes/295269-former-sen-bob-kerrey-joins-government-affairs-firm
@Jim Jatras, any guess which clients whose best interest he’s representing?
The ‘National Taxpayer Advocate’ at the IRS Is Advocating for the Government, not Taxpayers
http://www.cato.org/blog/national-taxpayer-advocate-irs-advocating-government-not-taxpayers
@statelessman
I thought Daniel was a little hard on her there.
Oh, it’s a scandal. Interesting to see if the media runs with it or continues covering for Obama. No way the IRS just up and targeted folks on its own.
There’s a big difference between an organization being able to function correctly and one that “yields big returns’.
17 months in OVDI without even one word from the IRS, I’d say that they’re underfunded.
The IRS with their admission of guilt let blood in the water. Of course it’s an opportunity to make political hay. You think the taxpayer will benefit from any of this? Not likely.
Well, can we suggest one big change as a start — Residence Based Taxation instead of the Citizenship-Based Taxation? How many suggestions and TADs by Nina Olson have been blown off and for what reason is it acceptable that she is and has been ignored? What will this mean for her? And, why???
Add the obligations of the IRS to maintain Obamacare in addition to what it will have with FATCA, 8938’s, etc., why wouldn’t it take the obscene equivalent of three million full-time workers?
Tell us this is all a bad, bad dream.
@Just Me — Her job is to restrain a government agency from abusing the tax payers, not an easy task I’ll grant you.
The IRS scandal is big enough news to be able to make some money:
“On Friday, I sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner calling on Congress to investigate this flagrant breach of the public trust. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to get to the bottom of this matter and ensure the transparency this President promised us on the campaign trail.
That’s why we need your help. Contribute $100, $50, $25 or whatever you can today to help us keep pressure on the White House.
The American people deserve answers and we are committed to holding President Obama and his administration accountable.
Sincerely,
Reince Priebus
Chairman, Republican National Committee”
Other links to the story on the growing political storm..
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/05/wsj-irs.html
The attack on Nina is very upsetting. Former Sen. Kerrey is misguided in his attempt to place the blame on the Taxpayer Advocate as well as deny all that Nina Olson has achieved in her office. Here is the comment I have posted under the article:
“This attack on Nina Olson reeks of an attempt to turn her into a scapegoat. As the Taxpayer Advocate, Nina has performed above and beyond the call of duty in her job. Her office has helped myself and at least two other people that I know to combat IRS policy mistakes that hurt taxpayers. Her office has contributed strongly to changing policy that affects many diverse taxpayers. The help her office provides runs the gamut from assisting those who have had their identities stolen to helping Americans residing abroad who unwittingly were caught up in a program intended for criminals who were hiding money abroad. Her agency is run as a tight ship and her staff are some of the most conscientious one will ever come across in any public or private enterprise. Her record, which is verified by my own experience, stands in opposition to what Former Sen. Bob Kerrey purports.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/10/10-crazy-things-the-irs-asked-tea-party-groups/
Absurd questions. Likely Just Me and Not that Lisa can relate to them.
Accounting Today has an article on this today as well, to which both Just Me and I have posted our respective comments:
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Obama-Calls-IRS-Targeting-Tea-Party-Groups-Outrageous-66691-1.html#read
And this controversy is going to brew for a while, I think…
It is so politicized, it will be impossible for it to die down quickly…
Baucus, now investigating IRS, urged IRS to target conservative groups in 2010
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/13/baucus-now-investigating-irs-urged-irs-to-target-conservative-groups-in-2010/#ixzz2THMHTkzY
Democratic Montana Senator Max Baucus is leading an investigation into why the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny despite the fact that Baucus once wrote a letter urging the IRS to do exactly that.
That is Max Baucus, the same guy, who as one of the gang of six on the JTC proclaimed that FATCA would “to root out tax cheats once and for all,”
@Just Me, no suprise there. The following article suggests that the “offshore leaks” were staged by the US government to drum up support for FATCA:
Offshore-Leaks: Der seltsame “Medienscoop”
http://derstandard.at/1363710736073/Offshore-Leaks-Der-seltsame-Medienscoop
Maybe I worded that wrong. I mean that it suggests that the release of the leaks may have been timed to be most suitable for FATCA.
Looks like it will be a hard week for Obama,
Now this story about the government going after journalist records
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/us/phone-records-of-journalists-of-the-associated-press-seized-by-us.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130514
and
KIM JONG-UN DEFENDS RIGHT TO OBTAIN JOURNALISTS’ PHONE RECORDS 🙂
Here is my comment to AccountingToday:
@Just Me, the one about Kim is great, I love it!
So…did former Sen. Bob Kerrey declare his taxes on the “honorarium salary” from the “New School” or did he think that it was an “honorarium” and he didn’t have to declare it. If he didn’t declare it, he’s a TAX CHEAT! http://chronicle.com/article/Bob-Kerrey-Quits-Controversial/136987/
Senator Kerry, you may have been a recipient of the Medal of Honor, but you tarnish that medal by making false accusations at Nina Olsen. I salute your Medal of Honor, I raise the middle finger at you for your false accusations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Kerrey
From the Wall Street Journal:
Nina Olson for IRS Commissioner
To atone for political abuse, give the Taxpayer Advocate a promotion.
President Obama named one of his budget functionaries, Danny Werfel, as the new acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner Thursday. Given that Mr. Werfel has spent the last year planning the sequester across the executive branch, he’s more qualified to inflict more political abuse than prevent it. Allow us to propose a better candidate: National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson.
Ms. Olson is the ombudsman for the public inside the IRS. Her office parachutes in to aid individuals and businesses when the tax men are jerking them around, as well as making recommendations to Congress about modernizing the IRS and the tax …
Absolutely — why have her findings and suggestions been largely ignored? She has some common sense!
Nina Olson, Taxpayer Advocate, Report to Congress, 2013