Patterico:
A reader sends a very interesting tidbit buried in a November 17, 2011 Businessweek.com article about the IRS and not-for-profit universities. The article is about the IRS making inquiries into “whether schools improperly claimed tax-exempt status for taxable businesses.” At the end of the article is this fascinating quote:
Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of tax-exempt organizations who is overseeing the investigation, says many schools are rethinking how and what they report to the government. Receiving a thick questionnaire from the IRS, she says, is a “behavior changer.”
Above: Lois Lerner, Behavior ChangerFreedom Works had a timeline of the IRS scandal here, and it’s interesting to see how Lerner’s quote fits into the beginning of that timeline. The entry in bold is my personal addition to the timeline based on the quote above:
Hey Lois, a prison sentence is a hell’uva behavior modifier as well.
Why plead the 5th if you aren’t worried about a little hard-time in the slammer? You POS
They’re obviously looking for some angle of attack. If they don’t have one—which they apparently don’t—she’s certainly not obliged to provide it. She would have to be an idiot to do so.
I have no problem with her comment about behavior modifiers. The IRS is charged with enforcing tax law. There are those who make every effort to minimize or avoid payment, and some who will employ any effective strategy to do so that they believe they can get away with. Suspecting that they will not get away with some particular avoidance strategy is one of the chief considerations that keeps such people from employing it.
A questionnaire is an effective method for letting people know that attention is being paid. If this actually results in behavior modification, it’s quite possible that some sort of legally indefensible behavior has been averted.
On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee’s Republican majority proposed a financial services bill that proposes to cut the IRS budget by 24 percent reduction.
There’s a demonstration of some really clear thinking. These bozos had already slashed the IRS enforcement budget, despite the fact that they claim deficits are a top priority, and despite the fact that studies indicate tax compliance is a very serious problem.