Oddly, Dem and GOP Leaders Don’t Agree on Next Act in IRS Investigation Circus

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) shared some new info yesterday about some of the employees in the IRS's Cincinnati office — including a self-described "conservative Republican" — who were all, "Yeah, we kinda sorta used terms like 'Tea Party' to try to determine who was engaging in too much political activity to qualify as a 501(c)(4)":

According to Cummings’ memo, the conservative IRS manager said no one from Washington ordered him to identify additional tea party cases. “There was no — there was no — no one said to make a search,” the employee said, according to an excerpt.
Rep. Cummings is pretty satisfied by this story and thinks it's about time to fold up the big top, but predictably, Darrell Issa isn't ready to end his version of the Greatest Show on Earth:
“The testimony excerpts Ranking Member Cummings revealed today did not provide anything enlightening or contradict other witness accounts,” Issa said in a statement. “The only thing Ranking Member Cummings left clear in his comments today is that if it were up to him the investigation would be closed.”
Woo.
 

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Would the IRS Take the Heisman Trophy as Payment for Back Taxes?

Maybe! But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

There was a fair amount schadenfreude aimed at the University of Southern California when the school was slapped with sanctions a couple weeks back and at Reggie Bush for his role in the whole sitch.

How Bush really feels about it seems to be a mystery since he’s been quoted saying, “[This] is the closest thing to death without dying” but also a less passionate response, “Whatever happens, happens.”

Borderline schizophrenia aside, Fox News reports that Reg might have to pay some back taxes on the estimated $300,000 in luxury gifts he allegedly received:

“If the entire $300,000 is determined to be taxable,” Los Angeles-based CPA Mark Greenberg said, “about 50 percent of that would go to the IRS and Franchise Tax Board. And with penalties and interest, it could go up to 60 percent since it’s going back a few years.”

Greenberg estimates that Bush, now the star running back for the New Orleans Saints, “ultimately will wind up paying about $150,000,” but “it could be up to $200,000” if his financial team can’t get the penalties and interest waived.

We’re sure Bush would never have to give up his trophy a la the Juice since A) he didn’t kill anyone and B) his sponsors are still firmly in his corner, so the money shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, having the IRS snooping around your financial situation is about annoying as a Keeping Up with the Kardashians marathon.

IRS Commish Admits That a Government Shutdown During Tax Season Would Be Kinda Weird

The head of the IRS said Thursday that a government shutdown during tax season would be a challenge the agency has never confronted before — and one that would become more complicated as the April filing deadline draws closer. Doug Shulman, the IRS commissioner, also signaled at a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing that his agency was discussing how to address a potential shutdown with the Obama administration, though he did not spell out any details of those talks. “We run a $13 billion financial services operation, so the idea of stopping it for a few days or a few weeks is strange,” Shulman said, adding that he was hopeful, based on ongoing negotiations, that a shutdown could be averted. [The Hill]

For Some Unknown Reason, The IRS Confiscated a Nearly Worthless Scarface Poster in Young Buck Raid

Earlier in the month you may recall the story of hip-hop artist Young Buck being on the wrong side of a IRS raid that involved some of those shiny shotguns.

At that time, we learned that the agents seized several items – recording equipment, jewelry, furniture, his platinum wall plaques – even Mr Buck’s PlayStation (he says it was his son’s but, come on).

Anyway, we now learn that agents also confiscated a $31k Breitling Bentley watch AND a Scarface movie poster with an approximate value of…$10.


We’re not too familiar with IRS protocols, so perhaps when someone’s house is raided, the standard operating procedure is to take literally everything. The furniture. The porno collection. Worthless movie posters that there are literally tens of thousands of copies of. It all goes.

Presumably, the agents could have sold the poster to a kid on the street for a few bucks so they could get coffee but it would still be only enough money for one or two coffees. Or maybe it was enough for one (one!) cover at the local strip joint for the post-raid celebration. Or maybe on of the guys/gals really, really, really wanted that poster. Who knows?

Motivation aside, it certainly serves as another fine example of IRS shrewdness when it comes to collection efforts.

$31,000 watch among items seized from Young Buck’s home [The Tennessean]