As a new member of the House Financial Services’ Committee staff, one of my first legislative assignments was to research a provision in the U.S. tax code. Having an ‘old school’ preference for researching hard copies rather than searching online, I told my supervisor that I much preferred to research the hard copy of the tax code.
Puzzled, he begged the question of whether I actually wanted a “hard copy.” Realizing I was serious, he laughed to himself and instructed me to conduct my research at the Congressional Research Library. Making my way to the Congressional Research library, I quickly understood why my supervisor laughed at my inquiry. An entire wall was dedicated to the tax code and contained countless volumes of IRS books on codes, exemptions, loopholes, etc. Realizing that I had made a mistake, I quickly returned to my office to research the provision online — where my supervisor was waiting to say, “I figured you would be back.”
Many of you are probably aware that the IRS tax filing deadline is upon us. As a staunch fiscal conservative, I am reminded at this time each year that our tax code is broken and long overdue for needed reforms. Regardless of how much our elected officials increase our taxes, they will continue to spend money they do not have as long as our tax code remains unchanged. The combined results are bankrupting our future and we must ensure better accountability across the board by our elected officials. Beyond that, you and I are being taxed more than ever by the IRS, an agency that has recently betrayed the trust of hard-working taxpayers. Allow me to elaborate.
In May 2013, the IRS acknowledged that it had selectively targeted nonprofit conservative advocacy groups applying for tax-exempt status based on key buzzwords in their title, such as “tea party,” “patriot” and “Israel,” for rigorous review.
You probably recall the outrage that resulted from this flagrant abuse of power, from conservative groups, Congress and all the way to the Oval Office. In response, the Department of Justice conducted a thorough review of IRS records in the months that followed, but high level officials such as Lois Lerner ultimately escaped the scales of justice by shredding evidence, dodging questions from Congress and avoiding the media spotlight. This is just one example of many where the IRS fundamentally abused our taxpayer funding and directly invaded our privacy on a national scale. This is unacceptable.
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Like most federal agencies, the IRS is required to submit a budget proposal to Congress each year. As you might imagine, the IRS, an organization that exists to file a portion of your earnings to be redistributed throughout the federal government’s ever-growing purse, is always in want of more congressionally allocated funds to perform their everyday operations effectively.
In fact, the administration is calling for a $15 billion increase in funding for IRS enforcement of tax laws in the fiscal 2019 budget. On March 31, 2015, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen had the gall to defend its budget increase, telling the National Press Club that his agency is only answering 43 percent of customer calls. That means the IRS is ignoring nearly 60 percent of your calls. My verdict when hearing an excuse like that: replace the senior leadership at the troubled agency with personnel who will truly put taxpayers first, rather than simply throwing more of our hard-earned tax dollars at the problem.
Many elected officials have argued that we ought to abolish the agency entirely. I am not one of them. Having said that, I am a strong proponent of a simpler, fairer tax code that will help our individuals find meaningful work and will allow American businesses to dominate foreign competitors. Tax reform is not an easy issue to explain, much less solve, but we must encourage our elected leaders to fix our broken system.
It is my personal belief that my taxes far exceed the benefits in my daily life, particularly when they are used to fund agencies such as the IRS that have time and again betrayed my personal and our collective trust as taxpayers. Moreover, we must be mindful that most hard-working Americans at every end of the socioeconomic spectrum are being taxed relentlessly — from the wealthy businessman to the single mother working two or three jobs to make ends meet for her children. We cannot lose sight of the fact that every dollar taxed is one that affects each and every one of us. As such, we should rightfully demand prudence by our elected officials with regard to taxing our hard-earned dollar.
A native of Pacifica, Jonathan Madison worked as professional policy staff for the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Financial Services, from 2011-2013. Jonathan works as an attorney and can be reached via email at jonathanemadison@gmail.com.
Jonathan hits it out of the park again! By most accounts somewhere slightly less than 50% of the people in this country do not pay income taxes so is it any wonder the majority of us don't care that much about the tax code since it doesn't affect us?
So the GOP gives us a massive tax cut and almost zero reform. Limiting State and Local tax deductions is not reform - just an effort to punish states than generally do not vote Republican. The tax cuts along with a huge increase in defense spending will result one of the largest deficits ever - is that being conservative? Sure there were large deficits during the Obama era but that was the result of unfunded wars a horrible economy and the Medicare drug program.
The characterization of the IRS review of non-profit groups is incorrect. They were looking for terms from BOTH left and right; they launched the review program because of an upsurge in abuse of the non-profit status by groups that do not qualify because they are primarily political, not educational; and the reason they caught more conservative groups is simply that more conservatives were abusing the system. (Though they also did definitely catch some liberal groups as well.)
Does the Journal consider misleading readers acceptable behavior by its columnists?
To be fair, I definitely recall the conservative outrage over the IRS "scandal", but conservatives are also outraged when people question the propriety of the President allowing foreign dignitaries to bribe him by choosing his overpriced hotel over its competitors. Their threshold for outrage is peculiar.
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(5) comments
Jonathan hits it out of the park again! By most accounts somewhere slightly less than 50% of the people in this country do not pay income taxes so is it any wonder the majority of us don't care that much about the tax code since it doesn't affect us?
So the GOP gives us a massive tax cut and almost zero reform. Limiting State and Local tax deductions is not reform - just an effort to punish states than generally do not vote Republican. The tax cuts along with a huge increase in defense spending will result one of the largest deficits ever - is that being conservative? Sure there were large deficits during the Obama era but that was the result of unfunded wars a horrible economy and the Medicare drug program.
The characterization of the IRS review of non-profit groups is incorrect. They were looking for terms from BOTH left and right; they launched the review program because of an upsurge in abuse of the non-profit status by groups that do not qualify because they are primarily political, not educational; and the reason they caught more conservative groups is simply that more conservatives were abusing the system. (Though they also did definitely catch some liberal groups as well.)
Does the Journal consider misleading readers acceptable behavior by its columnists?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2014/09/05/senate-panel-clears-irs-of-bias-in-targeting-scandal-but-hits-auditor/
[T]he IRS also used search terms such as “Progressive,” “ACORN” and “Occupy,” which are largely associated with left-leaning organizations.
To be fair, I definitely recall the conservative outrage over the IRS "scandal", but conservatives are also outraged when people question the propriety of the President allowing foreign dignitaries to bribe him by choosing his overpriced hotel over its competitors. Their threshold for outrage is peculiar.
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