Even if it turns out to be unrelated, the story, first reported by the New York Times, recalls dark periods when the country’s tax agency was used, or appeared to be, as a political weapon. A list of journalists, union officials and actors hostile to the president was given to the IRS director at the time, Johnny Mack Walters, who long denied that anyone had been audited as a result of being on the list. Now read this account from journalist and scholar David Andelman, who said he was audited multiple times after publishing a report on Nixon’s position on school busing.
Then there was the Tea Party-era IRS scandal.
Conservative political groups during the Obama administration had trouble achieving tax-exempt status, creating a politically damaging scandal, though subsequent reviews found no partisan political targeting, as liberal groups were also scrutinized.
what is happening now
News of former FBI officials facing audits broke Wednesday. McCabe immediately called for an investigation.
“The occurrence of this one of 30,000 events, twice, for the same people who were targeted in the same way by the former president and continue to be targeted to this day, I will add, is — it’s just — it defies belief.” , McCabe, now a CNN law enforcement analyst, said on “New Day” Thursday.
The head of the IRS has asked a watchdog to investigate, the agency said Thursday.
Is there any direct evidence that the IRS specifically targeted Comey and McCabe?
No. It may just be an incredible coincidence that these two senior FBI officials, both fired by the Trump administration in public and spectacular ways, were subsequently subjected to a random audit.
How big of a coincidence is that?
Big. In both tax filing years that Comey (2017) and McCabe (2019) audited, Americans filed about 153 million tax returns. About 5,000 of these types of audits were conducted in 2017 and about 8,000 in 2019, according to the Times report.
How did Comey and McCabe get picked at random?
Here’s what the IRS says on its website about randomly selecting tax returns for these audits:
Random selection and computer verification – sometimes returns are selected solely based on a statistical formula. We compare your tax return against the “norms” for similar returns. We develop these “norms” from audits of a statistically valid random sample of returns as part of the National Research Program conducted by the IRS.
The IRS tells an experienced auditor to review each return flagged by the system, and then they can refer it for audit.
Was there something wrong with Comey and McCabe’s taxes?
No. Comey actually got a small refund of $347, according to the Times, and McCabe said he had to pay a small amount of extra money to the IRS.
What does the IRS say about this match?
The agency appears to be taking the matter seriously. IRS Director Charles Rettig, a Trump appointee, referred the allegation to the Treasury Department’s inspector general, and in a statement the agency strongly denied any wrongdoing.
“It is ludicrous and false to suggest that senior IRS officials in any way targeted certain individuals for National Research Program audits,” the IRS said.
The IRS said the audits are conducted by career government employees and have safeguards in place to protect against politically motivated audits.
When did these random audits happen?
Comey was informed of his audit for the 2017 tax year in November 2019, according to the Times.
McCabe was informed of his audit for the 2019 tax year in October 2021 after Trump left office.
The agency said in a statement to the Times that Rettig, who has led the IRS since 2018, had no role in selecting candidates for audits.
McCabe told New Day on Thursday that he didn’t suspect anything wrong until he was contacted by the New York Times. He also praised the IRS official who conducted his audit. But he argued the investigation was warranted.
Why were Comey and McCabe fired again by the Trump administration?
Comey was fired by Trump, at least in part, because he refused to pledge loyalty to the then-president and to crush the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump campaign officials were involved. McCabe was fired as FBI deputy director in 2018, days before he was eligible for early retirement. He later settled a lawsuit against the Department of Justice and was able to essentially overturn the firing and get his retirement benefits back. Trump disliked McCabe because he figured in the same Russia investigation, and Trump often attacked McCabe’s wife, who ran for the Virginia state Senate as a Democrat in 2015.
CNN has reached out to Trump representatives for comment. The former president, through a spokesman, said in a statement to the Times: “I have no information on that.”
What is the current history with IRS audits?
The IRS has actually audited fewer people in recent years, according to a recent GAO report.
It audits people making less than $25,000 and more than $500,000 at the highest rate, according to the GAO.
A separate report by the Congressional Research Service documented a 63 percent drop in IRS review rates between 2010 and 2019, largely due to budget cuts and fewer examiners. The IRS went from more than 46,000 employees in its collections and examiner workforce in 2010 to fewer than 30,000 in 2019.
Shouldn’t audits be private?
yes. Just ask Trump, who has had a longstanding standoff with the IRS over the massive deductions he’s made. He has refused for years to release his tax returns, despite the long-standing custom of presidential candidates. The Times eventually obtained and published some of them. Trump has spent years trying to shield his tax returns from investigators in New York and in Congress. The IRS also launched an investigation after ProPublica recently obtained and published information on the tax returns of the richest Americans, including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett. This valuable series of reports showed how the richest people on Earth avoid paying taxes.
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