WASHINGTON -- From the Republican chairman of the House's tax-writing committee to the Democratic White House, politicians have prompted hundreds of audits of political opponents in the 1990s by forwarding complaints about tax-exempt groups to the IRS.
Information triggering the audits range from the referral of a newspaper article or a citizen letter to personal requests for investigations, according to hundreds of documents reviewed by The Associated Press.Asked about the demands, IRS officials say that tax agents would lose their jobs if they ever let their political views influence audit decisions -- regardless of the requester's motivation.
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, bluntly wrote the tax agency, "It is my assumption that the Internal Revenue Service has commenced, or will soon commence, an investigation" of a Buddhist temple in California, where a 1996 fund-raising event was staged for Vice President Al Gore. Archer wrote the letter on Oct. 18, 1996, three weeks before the presidential election.
A lawyer familiar with the temple event and its aftermath said the IRS sent criminal investigators to the Hsi Lai Temple, which eventually was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of a Democratic fund-raising organizer. The lawyer would not be quoted by name.
Former Rep. David Skaggs, D-Colo., said he referred two conservative organizations to the IRS in 1996 to achieve some "evenhandedness" after House Republicans began a "very concerted assault" on tax-exempt liberal groups.
Skaggs referred the Heritage Foundation and Citizens Against Government Waste to the tax agency based on a newspaper report. It said the groups had sent out a mailing signed by GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, then shared the list of responders with Dole's campaign.
Within two months of Skaggs' request, both groups found themselves undergoing costly audits that continue today.
"I believed then and I believe now that these were serious possible violations, and the appropriate step was to ask the people with the expertise," Skaggs said. "But it would be incredible to suggest, and I won't, that there was not a political dimension to these things. Of course there is."
John Von Kannon, vice president and treasurer of the Heritage Foundation, said the audit has cost his organization more than $100,000.
"We are a conservative organization, and there will be some people who don't like us. That's life," Von Kannon said. He added his group has done nothing wrong.
The IRS says fewer than 1 percent of the 6,000 to 10,000 audits of tax-exempt groups each year originate with complaints from lawmakers or the White House. The White House forwards about 1,300 constituent letters each year to the IRS, ranging from complaints of wrongdoing to obscure tax questions.
"Citizens often write to the president about issues under the jurisdiction of different federal agencies. We have a choice. We could forward their letters, or we can throw them out. We chose to forward them," White House spokesman Jim Kennedy said. He said all letters are referred regardless of political orientation.
Federal law generally prohibits tax-exempt groups from advocating the election or defeat of political candidates.
"We read our mail and deal with the facts appropriately. To ignore the mail is a dereliction of responsibility," said Marcus Owens, the IRS official who oversees tax-exempt organizations.