Ways and Means passes IRS bills

The House Ways and Means Committee cleared seven bills aimed at the IRS on Wednesday, including measures barring the use of private emails for official business and change the application process for tax-exempt organizations. 

The measures brought former IRS official Lois Lerner back to the forefront, just short of two years after the agency acknowledged improperly scrutinizing Tea Party groups. But the seven bills, which Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) called noncontroversial, sailed through the tax-writing committee. 

{mosads}Still, Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WIs.) took a hard line in discussing the IRS measures.

“The IRS works for the taxpayer, not the other way around. It’s their job to make doing your taxes as easy as possible,” Ryan said. 

“And so the burden is on them to prove any wrongdoing. The burden is on them to protect people’s privacy. And the burden is on them to tell taxpayers their rights. That’s the attitude they should have. But that’s definitely not the attitude they have today.”

The full House could take up the seven IRS bills shortly after it returns from a  two-week recess in April. In a more contentious proceeding on Wednesday, the Ways and Means panel also passed a repeal of the estate tax on a party-line vote.

The Ways and Means panel found that Lerner used her personal email for official business, and sent that to the Justice Department last year as part of a criminal referral. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email has also brought new scrutiny to that sort of practice.

Ways and Means also cleared bills Wednesday to make it easier to dismiss IRS employees; to make a taxpayer bill of rights law; to give broader appeal powers to groups seeking tax-exempt status; and to shield donors from the gift tax.  

The House passed several of the bills in the last Congress, but they failed to become law.