I’ve recovered from Tax Day, my sleep is caught up, and it appears Las Vegas has moved smoothly towards summer (it reached 89 today). There has been a little bit of tax news during the past month:
Good News for Tax Professionals: The IRS announced that eServices has been updated and you can request a transcript for an individual where you have a Tax Information Authorization (Form 8821). I have not tested this new capability yet, but if this works we will no longer have to have a Power of Attorney in order to use eServices for transcripts.
That said, the IRS announcement (it came in late March) said that eServices was updated last fall. If it was, it wasn’t successfully updated; I tried to request a transcript for a client with an 8821 in December and couldn’t.
The IRS Scandal Continues to Percolate, with Bad News for Lois Lerner: Emails sent to and from the IRS and Lois Lerner have been made public, and these do not show Ms. Lerner in a good light. They show that Ms. Lerner was definitely involved in targeting conservative non-profits. They were obtained by Judicial Watch after filing a freedom of information act lawsuit against the IRS.
My favorite, though, is one where Cindy Thomas complains that Ms. Lerner and the White House through the Cincinnati “low-level” employees under the bus. I’ll let Ms. Thomas explain:
As you can imagine, employees and managers in EO Determinations are furious. I’ve been receiving comments about the use of your words from all parts of TEGE and from IRS employees outside of TEGE (as far away as Seattle, WA).
I wasn’t at the conference and obviously don’t know what was stated and what wasn’t. I realize that sometimes words are taken out of context. However, based on what is in print in the articles, it appears as though all the blame is being placed on Cincinnati. Joseph Grant and others who came to Cincinnati last year specially told the low-level workers in Cincinnati that no one would be “thrown under the bus.” Based on the articles, Cincinnati wasn’t publicly “thrown under the bus” instead was hit by a convoy of mack trucks.
Was it also communicated at that conference in Washington that the low-level workers in Cincinnati asked the Washington Office for assistance and the Washington Office took no action to provide guidance to the low-level workers?
One of the low-level workers in Cincinnati received a voice mail message this morning from the POA for one of his advocacy cases asking if the status would be changing per “Lois Lerner’s comments.” What would you like for us to tell the POA?
How am I supposed to keep the low-level workers motivated when the public believes they are nothing more than low-level and now will have no respect for how they are working cases? The attitude/morale of employees is the lowest it has ever been. We have employees leaving for the day and making comments to managers that “this low-level worker is leaving for the day.” Other employees are making sarcastic comments about not being thrown under the bus. And still other employees are upset about how their family and friends are going to react to these comments and how it portrays the quality of their work.
Another email shows that the IRS planned to meet with the Department of Justice over whether to prosecute conservative groups. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether or not there’s anything to see here.
Second Runner-Up for 2013 Tax Offender of the Year Gets 20 Years at ClubFed. Phillip Monroe Ballard decided to channel the spirit of 2012 Tax Offender of the Year Stephen Martinez: He decided to murder the judge of his tax evasion trial. Luckily for all concerned, an informer let authorities know of the plan. Mr. Ballard not only has a tax conviction but now a 20-year sentence for attempted murder-for-hire. Given he’s 72, he’ll likely spend the rest of his life at ClubFed.
Tags: IRS.eServices, IRS.Scandal