IRS Harassment of Liberty Minded Groups Should Worry Us All

Some conservatives and libertarians long suspected that the IRS may be targeting Tea Party and limited government groups. The conservative news outlet The Blaze questioned whether the Obama administration was using the IRS to silence liberty-minded groups due to their outrageous demands and scrutiny over a year ago. 

According toThe Blaze, The Ohio Liberty Council’s (OLC) President Tom Zawistokowski wrote that the IRS had been demanding very detailed information on the OLC’s activities back in early 2012. The liberty group had to almost stop their activities just to find time to comply with the IRS. 

In the letter, Tom states

My own Portage County TEA Party has been waiting for over a year just to get a response from the IRS so we can file our 2010 tax return! In the attached PDF I share with you, the “Additional Information Requested” of the Ohio Liberty Council from our June 30th, 2010 application which we just received on January 30, 2012. Yes, they took a year and a half to respond to our application and they are giving us two weeks to respond back. As you will see, this is no simple request.

Here is what the IRS demanded from the group:

A hard copy printout of the website – A PDF file emailed to the IRS will not suffice (and this is the high-tech Administration)

List all Social Media outlets being used (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and include hard copy printouts of every posting

A narrative description of every activity of your organization since June 30, 2010 (filing date) – And they do not want a mere description of the event, but full details – including; who conducted it, their qualifications, who was allowed to take part in the activities and how they were selected, was there a fee? (how much)

The IRS also wants to know about the members of the group and their roles and more, asking specifically for the “name, address, and corporate federal ID of all organizations that are members of our organization

Remember: all of this information was posted publicly over a year ago. 

 The mainstream media never took any of their worries seriously, likely dismissing them as “wacko conspiracies.”

Well…their suspicions were proven true.

As we have learned over the past few days, the IRS had been targeting liberty groups for more than three years. They gave “special” scrutiny to groups with “Patriot”, “Tea Party”, or “9/12” in its name. Progressive minded groups were not given this same treatment when they applied for non-profit status. Apparently, the federal government feels threatened by groups that promote American principles such as constitutionally limited government. 

This should worry all Americans, regardless of their political views. The federal government should treat all Americans equally. A Republican presidential administration giving extra scrunity to liberal groups would be just as wrong and corrupt. It is outrageous that the government is harassing citizens for their political affiliations. This is a violation of the First Amendment and we demand answers from the IRS and the Obama administration. 

Was your liberty group unfairly targeted by the IRS? Tell us your story here.