Lois Lerner's Retirement and Other Perspectives on the Continuing IRS Scandal

Lois Lerner, the embattled former head of the IRS Exempt Organizations division, retired on Monday, September 23, 2013 after 30 years of civil service.  As Politico stated in an article about Lerner's retirement:  "Lois Lerner is the political piñata that Congress still loves to whack months after she awkwardly acknowledged that the IRS wrongly scrutinized conservative groups for years.  Her sudden retirement on Monday after 12 years at the agency won’t change that."

The Huffington Post blog published an article yesterday entitled, "The IRS Scandal That Wasn't," providing an interesting historical and, of course, political recounting of the 501(c)(4) determination process with respect to politically-oriented organizations that led to Lerner's undoing.   The article, however, makes a profound statement of caution in its conclusion:  "Far more troubling is that the current brawl over the IRS may make the agency too gun shy to properly police tax-exempt groups."

NAM