16 Tea Party groups and The Ohio Liberty Council may file a civil suit against the Internal Revenue Service according to American Center for Law and Justice’s executive director Jordan Sekulow. Sekulow is representing 27 Tea Party groups from around the country.
He said, “It’s unclear if the organizations will file as a class action or individually in the 17 different states they encompass.”
Tom Zawistokowski, president of Ohio Liberty Council Corp., posted a letter on the group’s website explaining their experiences with the IRS.
Zawistokowski writes:
My own Portage County TEA Party has been waiting for over a year just to get a response from the IRS so we can file our 2010 tax return! In the attached PDF I share with you, the “Additional Information Requested” of the Ohio Liberty Council from our June 30th, 2010 application which we just received on January 30, 2012. Yes, they took a year and a half to respond to our application and they are giving us two weeks to respond back. As you will see, this is no simple request.
Here’s what the IRS demanded of the group:
A hard copy printout of the website – A PDF file emailed to the IRS will not suffice (and this is the high-tech Administration)
List all Social Media outlets being used (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and include hard copy printouts of every posting
A narrative description of every activity of your organization since June 30, 2010 (filing date) – And they do not want a mere description of the event, but full details – including; who conducted it, their qualifications, who was allowed to take part in the activities and how they were selected, was there a fee? (how much)
The IRS also wants to know about the members of the group and their roles and more, asking specifically for the “name, address, and corporate federal ID of all organizations that are members of our organization”
[...]
Public events are also under scrutiny with the IRS demanding to know the time, location and content schedule of each event.
Copies of any and all handouts must be included.
Names and credentials of all instructors and copies of any workshop materials used.
All speakers must be identified and copies of every speech must be included.
After all this, it would not be surprising if the Ohio Liberty Council didn't file the lawsuit as soon as next week.
Source: ColumbusDispatch, TheBlaze