Criteria IRS Used to Select Groups for Audit -- Audit Process Impeded and/or Prevented Groups from Operating

Straight from the "independent" IG Report are the following which Obama and his Spokesman Jay Carney have disputed to this point.

Criteria for Potential Political Cases (June 2011)

• “Tea Party,” “Patriots” or “9/12 Project” is referenced in the case file
• Issues include government spending, government debt or taxes
• Education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to “make America a better place to live”
• Statement in the case file criticize how the country is being run

Source: EO function briefing dated June 2011

Audit processes result in delays typically of a year of more, disrupting the applicants and causing applications to wither on the vine.

The IRS process was about deferment, delay and denial during the election season -- a heinous abuse of power.  Here are the types of things the IG says happened or may have happened as a result of the unlawful review process,

As a result, the IRS delayed the issuance of letters to organizations approving their tax-exemptstatus. For I.R.C. § 501(c)(3) organizations, this means that potential donors and grantors could be reluctant to provide donations or grants In addition, some organizations withdrew their applications and others may not have begun conducting planned charitable or social welfare work. The delays may have also prevented some organizations from receiving certain benefits of the tax-exempt status. For example, if organizations are approved for tax-exempt status, they may receive exemption from certain State taxes and reduced postal rates. For organizations that may eventually be denied tax-exempt status but have been operating while their applications are pending, the organizations will be required to retroactively file income tax returns and may beliable to pay income taxes for, in some cases, more than two years