Internal Republican Service?

So the working poor are automatically criminals in the eyes of the IRS?
And they don't 'deserve' due process?
Is this more politicizing of the Federal Government?
Are IRS policies now based on Rightwing philosophy instead of the law?

IRS held up refunds of 120,000

By Albert B. Crenshaw

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -— Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service froze more than 120,000 taxpayers' refunds last year on suspicion of fraud without notifying the taxpayers or giving them a chance to respond, the federal National Taxpayer Advocate said in a report released Tuesday.

In fact, based on data from fiscal 2004, the advocate estimated that as many as 1.6 million refunds have been frozen by the IRS' Criminal Investigation (CI) division over five years without letting taxpayers know they were under "suspicion of criminality or giving the taxpayers an opportunity to provide documentation to support their refund claims."

"At a minimum, this procedure constitutes an extraordinary violation of fundamental taxpayer rights and fairness. In our view, it may also constitute a violation of due process of law," said Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in her annual report to lawmakers on problem areas in tax administration. ...

... But a TAS study of some of the cases brought to it by complaining taxpayers found that in 66 percent there was no evidence of current-year fraud and that 80 percent of these taxpayers ultimately received either a full refund or partial refund of the amount they had originally claimed.

The median adjusted gross income of taxpayers who were found to have committed "no fraud" was $13,330 and the median income of those who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit was $11,956. The median refund received was $3,685, Olson said. ... (full article)