Pressure from lawmakers grows as IRS begins new tax season with ‘continued confusion’
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pressuring the Internal Revenue Service over ongoing problems and unaddressed issues from last year’s filing season, even as this year’s season is in full swing. A bipartisan group of more than 100 lawmakers from the U.S. House and Senate sent a letter to the IRS raising concerns about “continued confusion” and “numerous problems” with the agency. “We remain concerned that the IRS does not have a comprehensive plan to remedy the numerous problems affecting taxpayers, despite the fact that this filing season is already well underway,” the lawmakers wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. “For example, there is continued confusion about which notices may be unilaterally suspended by the IRS, beyond the notices the IRS has already suspended, among other issues.” The problems began in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s Child Tax Credit, a monthly payment program that began last summer and continued through the end of the year. That federal program, administered by the IRS, distributed monthly payments to parents based on the age and number of their children. The hefty bureaucratic undertaking, along with stimulus check distribution, resulted in major delays at the IRS. The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) published its federally commissioned report in December, which said that the IRS had 6.2 million unprocessed individual returns, 2.4 million unprocessed amended individual returns, 2.8 million unprocessed business returns, and 427,000 amended business returns. The NTA also reported the IRS had roughly 4.75 million pieces of unprocessed correspondence from taxpayers. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the IRS in February with a similar theme, demanding the IRS remedy bureaucratic issues. Those Republicans also pointed to “COVID-19 related telework policies” allowing most IRS employees to work remotely. “For many Americans, their tax refund can equal six weeks of take-home income,” the letter said. “The volume of tax returns and refunds completed each year shows the far-reaching impact that processing delays could have for the average American. Processed returns are also essential for those who may be entitled to apply for other government benefits such as loans administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. It is therefore imperative that the IRS take steps to mitigate any processing delays, which can delay refunds and access to economic relief programs.” The Congressional inquiries have placed a steady stream of pressure on the agency. A bipartisan group of 214 lawmakers sent a letter to the IRS and Treasury Department in January, emphasizing the negative impact on small businesses. “In many cases, the delayed processing of amended returns has been devastating to small businesses in our communities whose applications for emergency loans from the Small Business Administration have been caught in limbo nearly two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began,” the letter said. “The situation has deteriorated to a point that the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) will no longer accept cases solely involving the processing of amended returns. This has made it impossible for frustrated taxpayers to find any help.” The IRS issued an “urgent reminder” in January, warning Americans to file electronically “to help speed refunds” this year. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
U.S. Treasury Department issues health law reporting extension for employers
The Treasury Department on Monday gave employers an extension of critical reporting requirements, as it seeks to manage some of the most complicated parts of the federal health care law. Employers had previously faced deadlines in February and March to report 2015 health insurance information to their employees, and also to the IRS. If they need more time, employers can now have until March 31 to get information to their workers and until June 30 in certain cases to get details to the IRS. Treasury said it acted after many employers complained they might not be able to get the information processed in time. Companies that rely on outside vendors were running into a bottleneck. “It’s a limited extension to make the system work as smoothly as possible,” said Treasury senior adviser Mark Iwry. The extension also applies to health insurance companies facing similar reporting requirements. The information is needed to enforce the health law’s requirement that individuals carry insurance, to administer its subsidies for premiums and to apply its requirement that larger employers offer coverage. Employers and insurers are filing the annual reports for the first time, as required by the health law. President Barack Obama‘s health care overhaul joined health insurance and taxes, two of the most complicated areas for consumers and employers alike. The law’s penalties for people who go without health insurance are administered through the income tax system, as are its subsidies to people who qualify for assistance with their premiums. Penalties for larger companies that fail to provide coverage are also assessed through taxes. The requirement for employers with 50 or more workers to offer coverage or face fines has been delayed twice. It takes effect Jan. 1 for companies with 50-99 employees. Companies with 100 or more workers faced the requirement starting this year, after an initial postponement of a year. Treasury officials said that Monday’s announcement does not involve any more delays of the law’s underlying requirements, and just provides additional time for companies to file paperwork. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Speaker John Boehner pushes for budget deal before leaving House
Speaker John Boehner is trying to make one last deal as he heads for the exits, pushing to finalize a far-reaching, two-year budget agreement before handing Congress’ top job over to Paul Ryan this week, congressional officials said Monday. The deal, in concert with a must-pass increase in the federal borrowing limit, would solve the thorniest issues awaiting Ryan, who is set to be elected speaker on Thursday. It would also take budget showdowns and government shutdown fights off the table until after the 2016 presidential election, a potential boon to Republican candidates who might otherwise face uncomfortable questions about messes in the GOP-led Congress. Congress must raise the federal borrowing limit by Nov. 3 or risk a first-ever default, while money to pay for government operations runs out Dec. 11 unless Congress acts. Top House and Senate aides have been meeting with White House officials in search of a deal that would give both the Pentagon and domestic agencies budget relief in exchange for cuts elsewhere in the budget. The measure under discussion would suspend the current $18.1 trillion debt limit through March 2017. After that it would be reset by the Treasury Department to reflect borrowing over that time. The emerging budget side of the deal resembles a pact that Ryan himself put together two years ago in concert with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., that eased automatic spending cuts for the 2014-2015 budget years. Many conservatives disliked the measure and many on the GOP’s right flank are likely to oppose the new one, which would apply to the 2016-2017 budget years. “Fiscal negotiations are ongoing,” McConnell said as he opened the Senate on Monday afternoon. “As the details come in and especially if an agreement is reached, I intend to consult and discuss the details with our colleagues.” “We’re just trying to get something done as soon as we can,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said earlier on Monday. Negotiators hoped to officially file the legislation Monday night but it’s not clear if they’ll meet the goal. GOP defense hawks are a driving force for an agreement. Democrats and the White House are pressing hard as well, demanding increases for domestic agencies on par with any Pentagon hikes. At the White House, press secretary Josh Earnest said: “Not everything has been agreed to. That means nothing at this point has been agreed to.” Obama wants roughly $74 billion in additional defense and non-defense spending this year to ease agency budget curbs imposed by strict spending caps set under a 2011 debt and budget deal. The measure wouldn’t provide full relief demanded by defense hawks and would award equal increases to defense and domestic programs. The pending talks focus on setting a new overall spending limit for agencies whose operating budgets are set by Congress each year. It will be up to the powerful House and Senate Appropriations committees to produce a detailed omnibus spending bill by the Dec. 11 deadline; those talks are likely to be arduous, especially as Republicans press policy provisions, known as “riders,” on a variety of topics, including the environment, travel to Cuba, and regulation of the Internet. Details were sketchy but the tentative pact anticipates designating increases for the Pentagon as emergency war funds that can be made exempt from budget caps. Non-defense spending would get an increase as well, though not the full amount demanded by Obama in his February budget. Offsetting spending cuts included reforms to the Agriculture department’s crop insurance program, a “site neutral” proposal that would curb Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by hospitals, and extending a 2 percentage point cut in Medicare payments to doctors through the tail end of a 10-year budget “window.” Lawmakers hoped to address two other key issues as well: a shortfall looming next year in Social Security payments to the disabled and a large increase for many retirees in Medicare premiums for doctors’ visits and other outpatient care. Social Security’s disability trust fund is projected to run out of money in late 2016. If that is allowed to happen, it would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits for 11 million disabled workers and their families. Congress and the White House have been discussing a temporary reallocation of payroll taxes from Social Security’s retirement fund to the disability fund. The move would be paired with changes to the disability program to fight fraud and to encourage disabled workers to return to work. Officials who described the discussions did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about confidential negotiations. Just days are left for the deal to come together before Ryan, R-Wisconsin, is elected on Thursday to replace Boehner, R-Ohio, who is leaving Congress under pressure from conservative lawmakers disgusted with his history of seeking compromise and Democratic votes on issues like the budget. The deal would make good on a promise Boehner made in the days after announcing his surprise resignation from Congress last month. He said at the time: “I don’t want to leave my successor a dirty barn. I want to clean the barn up a little bit before the next person gets there.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Becky Gerritson: Person in charge of getting missing IRS emails now in charge of Benghazi emails
Yesterday, while Americans were consumed with the SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare, I was engrossed in watching congressional testimony from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, Mr. J. Russell George, and Deputy Inspector General, Mr. Timothy Camus, on the progress of the investigation into Lois Lerner’s “lost emails.” The hearing was an update designed to inform the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of their progress on the investigation into Lois Lerner’s lost emails. The investigation has NOT been completed therefore no fingers were pointed and no final conclusions were stated. HIGHLIGHTS: So far TIGTA investigators have interviewed 118 witnesses and have procured 20 terabytes of data. TIGTA found 1,000 emails that the IRS neglected to give to Congress as requested. TIGTA estimates that there are still 23,000-24,000 emails missing. TIGTA stated that the IRS did not put forth an effort to search for backup tapes. A statement which flies in the face of IRS Commissioner Koskinen’s previous testimony that “the IRS would leave no stone unturned.” Truth is, that out of the following six sources where emails could be located: crashed hard drive back-up tapes for that hard drive decommissioned server tapes for that server Lerner’s Blackberry loaner computers the IRS only looked at one source. As a matter of fact, the IRS didn’t even bother to ask for the backup tapes. Yet TIGTA had no problem asking for and getting them. In fact, it was as easy as going through the drive-thru and speaking to the clown at Jack In The Box on a Friday night. They just drove to the location where they were stored and asked for them, and voila – there they were! Preservation orders for Lerner’s emails were given in Jun 2013. In August 2013, Congress still had not received the emails so they issued subpoenas for all of Lerner’s emails. Yet 7 months later, in March 2014, 422 backup tapes were destroyed. And would you believe that the employees who destroyed them are still working at the IRS? During the testimony, TIGTA emphasized that, at this point, they do not suspect intentional destruction of evidence. OH Rep. Jordan laid out the timeline of events, including when investigations began, when subpoenas were issued, when emails went missing and when misleading statements were made at congressional hearings by IRS officials. He asked Mr. Camus, “How could this not be intentional?” And Camus’ answer was, “It’s an unbelievable set of circumstances.” I agree; I DON’T BELIEVE IT! The probability of all of these events happening by chance is astronomical. So I asked myself, “Is this just incompetence or is it obstruction of justice?” These IRS officials have worked for the government for years and many are making six figures; I just can’t believe they are that stupid. For example, when the order was issued to not delete, wipe clean, erase, etc. any of Lerner’s electronic communications, these managers later told investigators that they weren’t sure if it also meant “backup tapes” (even though the order included in its detailed instructions the words, backup tapes). So after discussion, or collusion, between themselves they decided it didn’t mean backup tapes – so they were “degaussed,” or “Lernerized.” HELLO! REALLY? To me, that is clearly intentional. Who in their right mind would believe this was accidental? An even if it was accidental, they were legally bound with protecting those emails and tampering with or destroying them is still a violation of the law. If you “accidentally” run a stop sign and crash into another vehicle, you can bet you will still be charged with a violation and be liable for the damages! As a casualty of the IRS’ targeting of conservatives, I am infuriated that no one has yet been held accountable. In fact, I found myself yelling back at my computer screen as I was watching the testimony. (I hope Google or NSA was not watching and recording me!) But there was one new piece of information that shocked me. It literally made my heart race as I felt a shot of adrenalin run through my body. S.C. Rep. Trey Gowdy announced that Catherine Duval, former Chief Council for the IRS Commissioner, the one in charge of producing all of the IRS emails to Congress, is now at the State Department in charge of recovering the Benghazi emails! Are you kidding?! It was under her watch at the IRS that 422 email backup tapes were destroyed! Are you concerned yet? I have concluded that our corrupt government has NO FEAR whatsoever of being punished, so they will continue their efforts to fundamentally transform our nation. Conservative Americans, NOW is the time to unite to reclaim our nation… before it’s too late! Share this post and speak out for freedom today! Becky Gerritson is the co-founder of the Wetumpka TEA Party. She serves as the Alabama State Coordinator for ParentalRights.org You can visit her official website at BornFreeAmericanWoman.com.
