IRS, Media and Common Sense

Lawyer Michael Minns

By Lawyer Michael Minns
At times like this when Congress, the Administration, and everyone in between, are all complaining about something the IRS did, which was really bad – maybe even criminal – perhaps for a second or two we could pause and try to do something useful, or at very least think about something useful.
IRS employees were giving Tea Party and other conservative groups an illegal, hard time about whether or not they qualified for free status as non-profit organizations. It’s a big deal; because you can deduct money you give a non-profit organization from your income taxes. If the Tea Party groups aren’t legal non-profits, the money you give from your income can’t be deducted.
It’s all a little sad and a little funny.
The IRS is about taking your money when you get paid for your work in order to redistribute it to places to which you might or might not agree.  The Tea Party is a political group that doesn’t like the IRS and also doesn’t like other government programs, mainly because the IRS has been bending the rules ever since it was started.  Ever since one commissioner decided not to pay income taxes at all; ever since Richard Nixon ordered them to go after the peace-niks and Jews; ever since our current Secretary of State, John Kerry, allegedly sent his IRS “friends” after the Swift-Boat vets who opposed his presidential bid (reported on by the US~Observer); and ever since someone in the Bush administration looked the other way when they started being extra tough on Tea Party people.
So that’s funny. But what’s sad?
The politics of the day decides what groups it’s okay to beat up on unfairly. But, what about the little guy who doesn’t get his day in Tax Court? Does anyone care about him?  Or, an ex-wife whose husband was a nut and left her with goofy returns to deal with, causing her to lose her home.  Who cares? The big international companies who send work out of the US and pay no taxes, no interest. Where is the outrage? The Mom and Pop companies, who are already struggling, that get lambasted because they have to deal with the IRS’s goofy and inconsistent paper work.
No champions?  And, there are the myriads of innocent people charged with Tax Crimes who plead guilty because they just give up, or because their lawyers sold them out.  No heroes?  There are also the few innocent people whose lives are ruined by being slandered, who nevertheless fight to the end… and win that coveted not guilty jury verdict, and no one cares.  No news articles are written (unless the US~Observer is involved) refuting the false ones the government spreads when an innocent is arrested and is publicly indicted and shamed.  You can’t get a reporter to cover most of these cases if you kidnapped him and forced him to the court house (other than reporting his own kidnapping). 
I am waiting for the mainstream to say something that matters, because every day the IRS bullies destroy hard working American Citizens and no one really cares, in no small part because they don’t hear about it.  Bottom-line, the tax code is ridiculous and designed to force non-compliance and the IRS preys on the people.  That’s why this stuff happens, and every day citizens get uselessly destroyed.  
As far as the Tea Parties, a few heads will roll and all this will blow over.  And then?  And then, nothing that’s what.
Editor’s Note: Lawyer Michael Minns is the most successful Tax Evasion Lawyer in America. His writing is nearly as uncanny as his court room excellence. Minns just makes “common sense”…