Unusual for the New York Times to criticize the IRS so pointedly. Most private citizens cannot publicly attack the IRS for justified fear of raising their profile and triggering an audit (see: Plumber, Joe The or Snipes, Wesley).
But it sure would be useful to have a blog dedicated to exposing the abuses of the IRS and other agencies. Given how big the agency is, and how infrequent these articles are, we can be sure this is just the tip of an iceberg of bureaucratic malfeasance.
EDIT: this is apparently the eyesore that the IRS values at $65 million:
And of course, it's always a balance, which ends up with Saverin giving up citizenship because of their fury and at the same time big companies Doubling/Tripling Irish everything and being in the clear with them. (not saying what they did was wrong though)
It was Ohio Job&Family Services and the Highway Patrol which started trying to dig up dirt on him in retaliation for his criticism of Obama, not the IRS.
The IRS computer system was built in the 1970s. It does not have the capabilities you ascribe to it. Consequently, the IRS still uses the following system to determine who to audit: (1) errors in their returns, (2) types of income, and (3)randomly based on type of return.
But it sure would be useful to have a blog dedicated to exposing the abuses of the IRS and other agencies. Given how big the agency is, and how infrequent these articles are, we can be sure this is just the tip of an iceberg of bureaucratic malfeasance.
EDIT: this is apparently the eyesore that the IRS values at $65 million:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Robert_Rausche...