Has the IRS gone right back to old abuses of power?

[August 7, 1998]

Months after the congressional hearings into IRS abuses and after explicit IRS promises to reform itself, it appears the IRS may be right back to its old tricks with an even greater vengeance. Recently, a tiny non-profit Internet library and archive called FACTNet received a call from a Washington ally warning that FACTNet and its directors would likely be audited. The ally said a source at a federal government office had informed them that the IRS was planning retaliatory audits after FACTNet loudly criticized the IRS's ultra-secret tax deal with Scientology - a deal in which the service was seemingly intimidated into giving the world's most dangerous cult $1 billion in tax exemptions.

The story of the IRS-Scientology tax deal was first revealed by the Wall St. Journal, then by the New York Times, and then was the subject of a series of scathing editorials by FACTNet, revealing more details on Scientology's bending the IRS to its will. The editorials disclosed how IRS employees were personally put under siege by the cult and how high-ranking IRS officials left the IRS to work for Scientology, as part of Scientology's scheme to attain this billion-dollar tax give-away.

The tip FACTNet received from Washington has proven to be right on target. The first of the IRS retaliation audits has fallen on FACTNet. According to FACTNet's CPA, audits of a tiny non-profit like FACTNet are most unusual for the IRS.

FACTNet soon expects audits to be announced for FACTNet's directors personally and for other key figures involved with revealing the secret Scientology-IRS deal, including those at the Wall St. Journal and the New York Times.

Links to FACTNet's series of IRS-Scientology editorials and other informational pages follow, so the reader may ponder why FACTNet was selected for a retaliatory IRS audit.

Needless to say, the FACTNet library will not be silenced, nor will it stop our call to have this new IRS abuse investigated while considering whether to bring a lawsuit against the IRS for its retaliatory action.

Links to the four articles in FACTNet's editorial series on the IRS-Scientology deal follow:

Also see:

This editorial opinion provided by FACTNet, Inc. FACTNet is a nonprofit Internet library dedicated to protecting freedom of mind by reducing harms caused by destructive cults and mind control. FACTNet's web page, which has received over 1,850,000 hits since January 1997, is located at www.factnet.org. If you would like to subscribe to our free FACTNews newsletter please go to http://lists.factnet.org/mailman/listinfo/factnet-news ~ Appropriate re-distribution and re-posting of this document is appreciated.