house Bill H.R. 709
Adding to the "Ten Deadly Sins" of IRS Employee Behavior: Don't use Your job for Political Gains
Argument in favor
Any IRS employee that treats a taxpayer differently or improperly because of their political beliefs has breached the public trust. They have proven they can't be trusted to do their job and deserve to be fired.
05/23/2015
This is incredible. As of right now, an IRS agent can't be fired for abusing their power for political reasons? You've got to be kidding me.
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04/29/2016
Republican or Democrat... An employee who doesn't do their job correctly should be fired... Period
Argument opposed
The threat of losing their job may prevent IRS employees from carrying out legitimate audits on taxpayers who have political backgrounds. Plus holding threats of firing over the heads of IRS employees is bad for agency morale.
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04/16/2015
This is another attempt to gut the IRS. Collecting taxes is a fundament role of government. Republicans hate government, so this is another backhanded attempt to hamstring the Federal government.
04/15/2015
Already covered in the "Personal gain" deadly sin and this is used as a mother redundancy and waste in congres
03/04/2016
The IRS discovered many cases of 501(c)4 organizations that were improperly using their tax status. These organizations were targeted because *their activities that do not constitute 501(c)4 activities* - their activity is political and not charitable. The 501(c)4 tax exemption exists so that taxpayers can subsidize charitable activities that benefit the *public good* - not political activity. Placing the blame on IRS employees is blatantly misleading and it further protects non-charitable orgs to obtain exemptions that are supposed to be solely designated for legitimate charities.
Our tax collectors should be held to a high standard of behavior.
This is another attempt to gut the IRS. Collecting taxes is a fundament role of government. Republicans hate government, so this is another backhanded attempt to hamstring the Federal government.
This is incredible. As of right now, an IRS agent can't be fired for abusing their power for political reasons? You've got to be kidding me.
Already covered in the "Personal gain" deadly sin and this is used as a mother redundancy and waste in congres
Republican or Democrat... An employee who doesn't do their job correctly should be fired... Period
The IRS discovered many cases of 501(c)4 organizations that were improperly using their tax status. These organizations were targeted because *their activities that do not constitute 501(c)4 activities* - their activity is political and not charitable. The 501(c)4 tax exemption exists so that taxpayers can subsidize charitable activities that benefit the *public good* - not political activity. Placing the blame on IRS employees is blatantly misleading and it further protects non-charitable orgs to obtain exemptions that are supposed to be solely designated for legitimate charities.
There is no need for a law to be passed for this except to make some republican beat his chest. It is clearly stated up front and in plain English that you are never to use your position as a federal employee for gain. This law is a stupid waste of time
Please, Congress, eliminate the current tax system for a Fair or a Flat Tax. Until then, protect us U.S. citizen taxpayers from I.R.S. employees' wrath and arrogance. NO bonuses for interrogating and penalizing more U.S. citizen taxpayers than the next I.R.S. auditor (read "accuser") does.
Why not apply this standard to all branches of government instead of only 1 small portion of the executive branch? I suppose the obvious reason is the unfortunate reality that every member of entire Congress would be out of a job--since the only reason to run for office is to enrich yourself & your friends while passing legislation that makes you above the law. As Steven says so correctly: "Hypocrisy, where would the GOP be without it?"
When committing fraud, don't get angry because you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar and try to turn the one who caught you into the villain. Hypocrisy, where would the GOP be without it??
"Not a smidgen of corruption". Which is as truthful as "if you like your healthcare plan you can keep it"
This is leadership problem, POTUS on down. Establish ROEs for how you treat taxpayers, establish checks and reviews to show the variety of audited orgs/folks are fair, establish noncompliance rules internally. If those aren't there and in place, then blame leadership, not the worker who lacks guidance.
I would hope the individuals would be trained to follow the Hatch Act, however purposeful auditing of those whose views are contrary to yours is despicable. Perhaps there should be some more teeth when it comes to this type of predatory behavior
In theory this is a good bill but I can imagine every politically connected organization will claim this bills protection even if that organization is doing something wrong.
Ethically, an IRS agent should not base tax collecting on political views. This law, however, is not aimed at supporting ethical behavior- but promoting a political agenda. It also provides way to many opportunities for partisan abuse of tax laws.
Allowing the IRS to fire an employee with a twisted motive? Sounds like this should have been covered before? Well it has. However, our childish gov. Loves to reroute meanings of legislation unless the wording is clear as day and this makes it clear as day. This wouldn't be a problem, but sadly accusations have happened in the past. This supports free thinking on the right and on the left. This just doesn't support the right -- nay Sayers.