IRS tax scandal in US: new evidence undermines political bias claims [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

IRS tax scandal in US: new evidence undermines political bias claims

Dan Roberts in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 June 2013 01.01 BST

Nearly three-quarters of the political groups subjected to extra tax inspection during a recent IRS scandal were not identifiably opponents of the White House, officials have revealed.

Republicans have called for a special prosecutor to investigate what they call "attacks on American democracy" after it emerged that rightwing groups were singled out for special treatment by the Inland Revenue Service.

But in testimony before Congress, two senior civil servants brought in to clean up after the affair gave evidence that suggests the reality may have been more complex than a simple case of political bias.

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However a further 226 other political groups were also placed in the same review whose affiliations were not immediately apparent from their name alone, which is often the case among liberal campaign groups. It remains unknown how many of these were in fact Democrat-leaning groups, partly because individual names cannot be publicly released under IRS confidentiality laws.

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/04/irs-tax-scandal-new-evidence