Washington (dpa) - The Internal Revenue Service admitted Friday
that it treated some groups associated with the anti-tax Tea Party
with additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status as
nonprofit organizations.
The US tax authority said it singled out conservative groups with
"tea party" or "patriot" in their names during the 2012 presidential
election campaign season.
Lois Lerner, director of tax exempt organizations for the IRS,
said career employees of the agency subjected the groups to further
examination based solely on their names.
"They didn't do it correctly," Lerner said Friday in Washington,
according to Bloomberg news. "We would like to apologize for that."
The agency, however, said its actions weren't politically
motivated.
The Tea Party is a conservative political movement that advocates
reducing government spending and taxes. Its name is derived from the
Boston Tea Party of 1773, a protest against British tax policies.
Tea Party groups complained last year that they were required to
provide an inordinate amount of information when they applied for
tax-exempt status.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the IRS's actions
"inappropriate." He said he understood the matter to be under
investigation by the inspector general at the IRS.
"We would fully expect the investigation to be thorough and for
corrections to be made," Carney said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called on
President Barack Obama to investigate. Referring to the practices as
"thuggish," he said Americans must be assured that they aren't common
in government operations.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House would
investigate.
"The IRS cannot target or intimidate any individual or
organization based on their political beliefs," Cantor, a Virginia
Republican, said in a statement.
