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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny
By: Josh Gerstein
May 13, 2013 07:18 PM EDT
The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups
for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least
one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for
tax-exempt status.
The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different
origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the
effort seems to have been equally ham-handed.
A leader of one of the organizations involved, Lori Lowenthal Marcus of Z
Street, said Monday that she was convinced the added attention her group got
was no accident.
“I can’t believe it was just about Z Street, because it’s a tiny
organization,” Lowenthal Marcus said of the group, which has been critical
of President Barack Obama for being too cozy with left-leaning Jewish groups
like J Street and with pro-Palestinian entities.
Z Street filed a lawsuit against the IRS in 2010 alleging that one of its
attorneys were told its application for tax exemption was delayed and sent
to a “special unit…to determine whether the organization’s activities
contradict the Administration’s public policies.”
The suit was filed in federal court in Pennsylvania and later transferred to
DC. A judge in Washington has set a hearing on the case for July 2.
Z Street had applied for the 501 (c) (3) status applied to most charities,
allowing for tax deductible donations.
Most of the tea party groups known to have come under scrutiny applied for
501 (c) (4) status, which allows advocacy groups to avoid federal taxes on
their operations but doesn’t render donations to the groups tax deductible.
Both kinds of applications are processed in the same Cincinnati office.
Legal filings show that the problems for Z Street — and apparently for
other Israel-related groups — stemmed from an obscure unit in the
Cincinnati IRS office: the “Touch and Go Group.” One of the so-called TAG
Group’s duties was to weed out applications that might be coming from
organizations which might be used to fund terrorism.
In response to Z Street’s lawsuit, an IRS manager acknowledged that
applications mentioning Israel were getting special attention.
“Israel is one of many Middle Eastern countries that have a ‘higher risk
of terrorism,’” wrote Jon Waddell, manager of the IRS’s Exempt
Organizations Determinations Group. “A referral to TAG is appropriate
whenever an application mentions providing resources to organizations in a
country with a higher risk of terrorism.”
However, Z Street and other groups reported getting unusual inquiries from
the IRS. A Z Street lawyer was contacted by a Jewish religious group, which
detailed inquiries from the IRS that the group’s leaders thought had
treaded too far.
“Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?
Describe your organization’s religious belief system towards the land of
Israel,” the IRS asked in a letter sent to the religious group, which asked
not to be named.
“If they’re asking that of that group, what else are they asking?”
Lowenthal Marcus asked.
She said basing the review for terrorism on where an organization did
business was strange and ineffective.
“If their policy was to look at any organization that had anything to do
with a country where terrorism exists, I don’t see how that limits anything
,” Lowenthal Marcus said. “There’s been terrorism in the United States,
in the United Kingdom, in Canada, in Malaysia….and in Boston. Is that now
going to be on the list?”
A spokesman for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
declined to say Monday whether that office had reviewed the issue of
scrutiny of Israel-related groups as part of the review of how the IRS
handled political groups, or separately. “I don’t have any information for
you one way or the other on that,” said the spokesman, David Barnes.
In court papers, the IRS denied that its personnel ever told Z Street that
there was a special review for groups that might be at odds with Obama
administration policy. The tax agency contended that the issue was whether
the groups might violate “public policy” — a legal term of art for the
notion that the government shouldn’t bestow a benefit on an individual or
organization engaged in illegal activity like terrorism, or in an officially
disfavored activity such as racial discrimination.
“The application was not transferred to TAG because of an ‘Israel special
policy’ or because Z Street’s views on Israel contradict the Obama
administration’s views on Israel,” the Justice Department wrote in a brief
seeking dismissal of Z Street’s lawsuit.
The TAG group was created in 2005 during the George W. Bush administration,
court papers indicate. Published IRS regulations describe the TAG and its
duties, but don’t say which specific countries trigger scrutiny beyond
those designated by the United States as state sponsors of terrorism.
The unit appears to have arisen out of the Bush administration’s efforts to
crack down on Muslim charities it alleged were funneling funds to terrorism
. Several of the largest U.S.-based charities for Muslim causes, including
the Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International Foundation, were
raided and had their assets frozen.
Soon after taking office, President Barack Obama took a different tack. He
declared publicly in 2009 that he thought government rules were unfairly
impeding Muslims from carrying through on their religious obligation to
donate to charity.
“In the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for
Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I’m committed to
working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat,”
Obama said in his speech to the Arab world in Cairo in 2009.
A Muslim leader active in zakat fundraising said Monday he was not aware of
any reduction in scrutiny of Muslim charities after Obama’s statement. “I
’m told it’s gotten worse,” said Imad ad-Dean Ahmad of the Islamic
American Zakat Foundation.
Other Muslim leaders said the latest headlines struck a familiar chord with
them. “When the story came out [about the tea party groups], a lot of us
said this is the same thing that has been happening to us over the past
decade,” said Abed Ayoub of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Ayoub said he was unaware of any significant change since Obama’s remarks
in 2009. “There hasn’t been a visible change to the guidelines and the
processes within the Department of the Treasury and the IRS. It has been an
ongoing battle it’s a constant struggle for us,” he said. “The Tea Party
is kind of in the same boat with many Muslim organizations on this issue now
.” | k*****r
发帖数: 21039 | 2 放烟雾，米犹一贯做法。
巴拉克这个米犹的house nigga, 这次玩火玩大了。
【在 l****z 的大作中提到】
: Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny
: By: Josh Gerstein
: May 13, 2013 07:18 PM EDT
: The same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups
: for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least
: one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for
: tax-exempt status.
: The trouble for the Israel-focused groups seems to have had different
: origins than that experienced by conservative groups, but at times the
: effort seems to have been equally ham-handed.
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