Still Targeting Conservatives: IRS Denied Tax-Exempt Status to 37 Religious, Charitable Groups in 2016

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Obama said that there was not even a smidgen of corruption in the IRS scandal. In reality, his administration is turning our government agencies against the American people without firing a shot. A bloodless coup.

“IRS Denied Tax-Exempt Status to 37 Religious, Charitable Groups in 2016,” by Ali Meyer, Washington Free Beacon, April 4, 2017:

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The Internal Revenue Service denied tax-exempt status to 37 religious, charitable, and educational organizations in 2016, according to recent data from the agency.

The IRS rejected a total of 54 applications for tax-exempt status in 2016. Groups applying for 501(c)3 status, which applies to non-profits whose mission is religious or charitable in nature, comprised 69 percent of denials.

Nearly 85,000 groups applied for 501(c)3 status in 2016. Of those applications, 79,545 were approved, 37 were denied, and 5,006 were not adjudicated.

According to the IRS, the 5,006 applications that were not adjudicated in 2016 were either withdrawn by the organization, did not include required information, were incomplete, or were IRS correction disposals.

Last year, the IRS denied 57 applications of religious and charitable groups.

As early as 2010, the IRS began targeting applicants for tax-exempt status based on their political ideology, delaying the applications of some Tea Party and conservative groups before the 2012 presidential election. To this day, some groups are still waiting for their tax-exempt status to be approved.

Attorney Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, represents 37 conservative and pro-life nonprofit organizations encountered opposition from the IRS in getting their tax-exempt status approved. One of these groups is still waiting for determination after filing for tax-exempt status in December 2009, which means it has been waiting for more than seven years.

Sekulow said he is not surprised the IRS rejected so many groups. He suggested the decline in rejections this year was due to the overall decline in applications for tax-exempt status. Groups interested in issue advocacy or political involvement during the 2016 election likely filed for tax-exempt status the previous year.

“What I would expect is that many of those groups probably should be given tax exempt status,” Sekulow said. “There’s probably a handful that maybe they applied to be 501(c)3 that should have applied to be 501(c)4.”

“They should have been notified by the IRS that, hey, we think you fit better in this category and work with some of these organizations, rather than lengthy delays and review processes,” he said. “We’re still in federal court over this with the IRS.”

Sekulow said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who has led the agency since 2013, needs to be replaced by someone who Congress and the American people can trust.

“We’ve had a very firm position at the ACLJ, we believe that there needs to be total reform at the IRS, and the institution is incapable of self-correcting,” Sekulow said. “That means people like Koskinen and a lot of the bureaucrats like Lois Lerner that run the [exempt organizations division] and the different departments within the IRS need to be changed.”…

“We need someone there who actually sees your vision, at least for [tax] reform and someone who understands that the IRS needs to be open and transparent about its past wrongdoing, because it needs to regain the trust of the American people,” Sekulow said.

“You shouldn’t have to be afraid that the IRS will target you because of your political beliefs or your religious beliefs,” he said. “So that’s why we believe continued pressure from Congress, I think, President Trump would appreciate that because it would give him the momentum to make that decision and it would work in tandem. You would have Congress calling for it and the president taking action on it.”…

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Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
6 years ago

Why is he still on the job? He should have been gone on Jan. 21st!

Craig
Craig
6 years ago
Reply to  Tumbleweed

For some reason, Trump has left all sorts of obama appointees (anti-American activists) in place.

drummie
drummie
6 years ago

The IRS has turned into a political enforcement agency. Go against the lefts ideas and you get investigated or jerked around for no reason. ALL IRS management needs to go, starting at the top and criminal investigations into the political character of their actions begun. Lerner should have been in prison long ago.

Craig
Craig
6 years ago
Reply to  drummie

Instead, she got retired at full benefits and salary after spitting in the faces of her employer, the Congress and the American people. SHE would have been one of my very first investigations if I were Trump, then skank hillary.

IzlamIsTyranny
IzlamIsTyranny
6 years ago
Reply to  Craig

The problem is, Trump 1st has to clean out the corrupt Justice Department because they’re the ones who are supposed to be investigating corruption at the federal level.

marlene
marlene
6 years ago
Reply to  IzlamIsTyranny

Exactly.

santashandler
santashandler
6 years ago

Gee, more Christian organizations turned down for tax-exempt status by the illegitimate, corrupt Obuma admin? Seven years and still waiting on an application is beyond shameful. They work for the American people and they are just laughing at what they are getting away with. All department heads there should be investigated and fired.

Mahou Shoujo
Mahou Shoujo
6 years ago

Every person in any position that was hired under the o’bimbo administration who’ll be gone, immediately. The continued carnage they reek on American society is not acceptable.

cylde
cylde
6 years ago

Fraud is the way to go. All the people named on the application should be registered democrats (all it will cost is the right to vote in primaries in some states) and the purpose full of leftist social catch phrases that say little about your real intentions. Once you have your approval, don’t rock the boat or vote until just before the next election.

Wayne Ville ... a Deplorable
Wayne Ville ... a Deplorable
6 years ago

This must be stopped! How many anti-American Soros funded organizations obtained tax-free status during the same timeframe?

Craig
Craig
6 years ago

The POS Koskinen is an obama appointee, he is an anti-American activist, just like Comey (FBI) and Rogers (NSA).
There is NO connection to Russia and Trump, but….the FBI and the NSA will manufacture one. Just wait and see.
The Civil War the democrats are calling for may well be triggered by the two anti-American activists Comey and Rogers.
WHY has Trump not gotten rid of these obama activists?

Mary Seres
Mary Seres
6 years ago

When is Trump and Sessions going to put this bald headed baboon behind bars. He is still getting away with his evil deeds and needs to be locked up with Hillary, Lerner, and Rice.

marlene
marlene
6 years ago

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Time for complete turnaround and a very rude awakening for ALL of obama’s federal agencies.

Drew the Infidel
Drew the Infidel
6 years ago

Just more of the so-called legacy of Obhammud, another in his long unbroken string of failures.

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