Tax Policy Center

tea party

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The Real IRS Flap Is About Dark Money, Not Emails

Don’t get distracted by the political theater over lost IRS emails. There is little new about headline-seeking politicians berating IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Like most of what happens in Congress these days, these second-rate star chambers do little more than create cable TV sound bites and
June 24, 2014Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

TheTaxVox 2013 Lump of Coal Award: Wait ‘Til Next Year Edition

Tax Vox proudly announces its seventh annual Lump of Coal Award for the worst tax and fiscal policies of 2013. The year was a curious...
December 23, 2013Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Obama Will Try to Clarify the Role of Tax-Exempt Groups in Politics

The Obama Administration is trying to untangle the controversy over the growing role of 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations in politics by creating a new category...
November 26, 2013Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Get IRS Out of the Business of Regulating Political Speech

A final thought, I hope, on the IRS/tea party scandal: Why do we want the IRS regulating political speech? It seems crazy on its face,...
May 16, 2013Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The IRS and the Tea Party: Treasury Report Finds Big Bungling but Small Scandal

The IRS’s botched processing of requests for tax-exempt status by political groups isn’t the new Watergate. In fact, as scandals go, it is barely the...
May 15, 2013Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

IRS and the Targeting of the Tea Party and Other Groups

To help clarify whether IRS incorrectly, unfairly, or illegally targeted the Tea Party and other conservative groups, here are the answers to a few basic...
May 14, 2013C. Eugene Steuerle
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

The IRS Was Wrong to Single Out Tea Parties, But Many Political Groups Should Not be Tax-Exempt

Let’s start with the obvious. Those IRS employees who singled out conservative groups for scrutiny over their tax-exempt status were wrong, wrong, wrong. Any whiff...
May 13, 2013Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

TaxVox’s 2012 Lump of Coal Awards

TaxVox proudly presents its 2012 Lump of Coal awards, Thelma and Louise edition, for the worst fiscal policy ideas of the year. The winners are:...
December 24, 2012Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Debt Limit Madness

Let me see if I have this right: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has effectively embraced the debt limit plan first offered months ago...
July 14, 2011Howard Gleckman