The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the IRS targeting scandal revealed last week the IRS transfer of 1.1 million-page database of information about tax-exempt organizations to the FBI. The Justice Department turned over the 21-disk database of information to the Committee in response to a subpoena.
Reps. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) are “extremely troubled by this new information.” According to the House Republicans, the database included confidential taxpayer information that shouldn’t have been shared. They believe the transfer was to be used in investigations of nonprofit political activity.
In response, the IRS has stated that the information contained in the database was “publicly available material that is easily and routinely accessible.” However, the IRS recently admitted that it identified 33 tax returns on the database (out of the included 12,000) that inadvertently included some “nonpublic information.” The IRS noted that the returns including the nonpublic information were from a variety of organizations, most without connection to political activity.
This latest revelation is fueling the Committee’s review of the IRS targeting scandal, so get ready to hear more about the Committee’s findings in the upcoming weeks and months. We’ll keep you posted.