KEY TERMS USED BY IRS TO APPLY EXTRA SCRUTINY

In addition to Tea Party and other conservative groups, IRS employees were instructed to be on the lookout for any organizations bearing the names ‘progressive,’ ‘Israel’ and ‘occupy’ to make sure they were social welfare organizations and did not spend more than 40 percent of their funds on political activities.

IRS EMPLOYEES SCREENED FOR ‘PROGRESSIVE,’ ‘ISRAEL’ AND ‘OCCUPY,’ TOO
by Richard Rubin

Bloomberg News
June 24, 2013

The Internal Revenue Service used the terms “progressive,” “Israel” and “occupy” on internal documents that helped employees screen groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, according to documents.

The disclosure adds a dimension to the controversy surrounding the IRS’s scrutiny of groups’ applications for tax exemptions. The agency revealed May 10 that it had given extra attention to Tea Party groups and other small-government advocates.

Now, documents obtained by Bloomberg News show that “progressive,” “Israel” and “occupy” appeared on versions of the “be-on-the-lookout” lists used by employees in the office that reviewed tax-exempt applications in an effort to coordinate similar issues. Danny Werfel, the interim leader of the IRS, said today that he was suspending the use of such lists.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the terms were used.

Pro-Israel groups had been complaining of unfair scrutiny. Eight groups with “progress” or “progressive” in their names had appeared on a publicly available list of groups that had been delayed and later approved by the IRS.

Also today, Werfel released a report outlining his plans for restoring trust in the agency and reducing the backlog of tax-exempt applications.