Acting IRS chief to testify at Small Business panel

“Our intention is to make sure small businesses aren’t being unfairly audited or scrutinized for inappropriate purposes, as has occurred with some conservative leaning nonprofit groups.”

{mosads}Werfel received a tongue-lashing from Republicans at House Ways and Means in his most recent appearance before Congress, after he asked for $1 billion in new funding and released an initial report on the targeting controversy that the GOP found lacking.

House Republicans are now seeking to slash the IRS’s funding by roughly $3 billion, and also plan votes on an array of IRS-related measures. Graves also latched on to the IRS controversy in May, sending a letter to Werfel asking how and why smaller companies might get extra scrutiny from the agency.

Democrats in recent weeks have noted that IRS watch lists also tripped up liberal groups, and that groups that weren’t conservative received strict scrutiny from the IRS. A Treasury inspector general has found that conservative groups were more likely to get extra scrutiny from the IRS than liberal groups.