"Internal Revenue Service" by saturnism is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.
The IRS intentionally destroyed 30 million active taxpayer documents last year and didn’t bother to tell anyone about it. And now it refuses to explain how and why the destruction occurred.
The IRS has in its possession an internal memo that explains its decision to destroy the documents. But it will not share this document with congress.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are conducting oversight but congressional Democrats are letting the IRS stonewall the American people.
Note the timeline documented by Ways and Means Republicans:
- May 4, 2022: TIGTA publishes report discussing the IRS decision to destroy 30 million paper-filed information returns in 2021.
- May 12, 2022: TIGTA provides briefing on the issue to W&M Committee staff and identifies the existence of an IRS decision memorandum.
- May 16, 2022: TIGTA provides answers to follow-up questions and indicates that TIGTA is checking with the IRS about whether it can provide the decision memorandum.
- May 17, 2022: W&M staff make a written request for a copy of the decision memorandum directly to the IRS.
- May 18, 2022: IRS responds via email indicating that it will not release the document because it would pose a “significant risk to the agency.” Agency offered no alternative or accommodation.
- June 13, 2022: Mr. Brady sends a letter again requesting the decision memorandum and asking a series of questions about the issues surrounding the document destruction decision. IRS has not responded as of the writing of this memo.
Democrats voted in lockstep to take $80 billion taxpayer dollars and shovel it to the IRS. Will the funding change the unaccountable culture within the agency? Nope.
The 30 million destroyed paper tax forms were submitted by taxpayers attempting to pay their taxes. Many of them undoubtedly spent a great deal of time trying to prove to the IRS that they submitted their forms.
To give a sense of the volume of this material, a single stack of 30 million pieces of paper would reach a height of two miles. Such a volume would fill up about a dozen dump trucks. Were the documents burned? Or shredded? Put in a landfill?
The only reason the American people know about the destruction at all is because the official IRS watchdog (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) discovered it during an onsite inspection of an IRS facility.
What happened, and why? If Democrats and the IRS have their way, we’ll never know.
Just be sure to keep the money flowing.