American law forbids the federal government from arbitrarily targeting certain persons or groups for tax enforcement, but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a long history of launching intrusive, ideologically focused federal investigations into political activities.
The agency has been charged with failing to uphold its purpose of impartiality, caving into political pressure, opposing internal changes, and becoming embroiled in numerous controversies.
The IRS may be used to target American individuals for political reasons. Here are 10 things you should know.
IRS harassment targeted Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The IRS repeatedly harassed Martin Luther King Jr. for speaking out against inequity on fabricated charges.
He was the first individual ever to face criminal charges in Alabama for tax fraud in 1960. On May 28, 1960, Dr King was found not guilty in Montgomery by a white-only jury.
Audits were also conducted on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and several Dr King’s attorneys.
In COINTELPRO, the FBI used the IRS as a weapon against Black activists.
The FBI used the covert COINTELPRO domestic counterintelligence program to conduct some of the worst politically motivated attacks by the federal government against Black activists.
According to Time, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, gave the go-ahead for the new operation to “expose, disrupt, and otherwise eliminate” left-leaning organizations and individuals in May 1968.
This included using the IRS as a weapon in the federal campaign. Black Panther Party leaders were targeted by COINTELPRO and “neutralized” by being killed, imprisoned, humiliated in public, or falsely accused of crimes.
In less than a year, the FBI had given the IRS the go-ahead to launch investigations into 35 activists who were allegedly not submitting tax forms.
The IRS provided the FBI with around 200 tax returns between 1966 and 1974, most of which belonged to Black nationalists and anti-Vietnam War activists.
In 1968, a top IRS officer declared the IRS’s program of unquestioningly working with the FBI to be “illegal,” yet the abuses persisted despite the need for internal improvements.
Nixon gave the go-ahead to attack “left-wing” tax-exempt organizations with the IRS.
The White House has given its sanction to the abuse of the IRS by early 1969. President Richard Nixon’s adviser suggested having the IRS check on left-leaning tax-exempt organizations to make sure they were following the law.
Nixon acquiesced. He was charged with inappropriate use of the IRS among other things five years later, during his impeachment.
According to representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the IRS unfairly singled out the organization for an audit during the 2004 election season to stifle political activities.
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When Bush was in office, the IRS targeted the NAACP.
Since Herbert Hoover was the last sitting president to reject to address the NAACP, the IRS audited the NAACP in 2004, according to Salon. The NAACP is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States.
Tax returns and other financial records of suspects, individuals deemed extremists, and Communist Party supporters were freely available to the FBI during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
