An inspector general who disclosed the Internal Revenue Services extra scrutiny of Tea Party groups ignored the tax agencys similar focus on groups backing Democrats, according to a report released Friday by Senate Democrats.
The IRSs mismanagement of the groups applications for nonprofit status was compounded by the inspector generals audit, which didnt mention the IRS used terms such as progressive to select Democratic-leaning groups for scrutiny, the report said. The audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, released in May 2013, triggered outrage by Republicans and a change of leadership at the IRS.
By excluding any analysis of how liberal groups were handled and failing to provide critical context for its findings, the TIGTA audit inaccurately and unfairly damaged public confidence in the impartiality of the IRS, it said.
The report by the Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is the first complete look by a congressional panel at IRS treatment of politically involved groups seeking nonprofit status.
The committees Republican staff declined to join the report, saying the IRS treatment of Republican-aligned Tea Party groups was more intrusive and widespread than its handling of Democratic-leaning groups.
The inclusion of a scant few liberal groups by the IRS does not bear comparison to the targeting of conservative groups, the Republicans wrote.
The subcommittee chairman is Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat. The top Republican is John McCain, an Arizona Republican.
Days before the inspector generals report, the IRS said it had given Tea Party groups extra scrutiny and apologized. The revelation led to a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation.
Like other summaries of IRS activities, the report said IRS employees struggled to set criteria for determining which groups qualify for tax exemption under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. The law says such groups must be exclusively organized to promote social welfare; IRS regulations said they cant be primarily political.
In some emails, IRS employees lumped Tea Party groups and Democratic-aligned groups together.
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Democrats say left-leaning groups also targeted by IRS