IRS Targets Tea Party and Conservative Groups' Tax-Exempt Applications
Between 2010 and 2013 the IRS used politically charged keywords — including 'Tea Party,' 'Patriot,' and 'We the People' — to flag and delay tax-exempt applications from conservative and libertarian advocacy organizations, subjecting them to burdensome, intrusive questionnaires not applied to comparable liberal groups.
Beginning in 2010, the IRS Exempt Organizations division in Cincinnati began using lists of politically charged search terms to identify applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny. Terms included 'Tea Party,' 'Patriots,' '9/12,' 'We the People,' and phrases related to government spending, debt, or the Constitution. Groups so identified faced processing delays of two or more years and were sent multi-page questionnaires demanding donor lists, social media content, and descriptions of volunteers' political beliefs. In May 2013 IRS director of tax-exempt organizations Lois Lerner publicly apologized for the practice. A subsequent Treasury Inspector General audit confirmed the targeting and found it 'inappropriate.' The DOJ investigated but ultimately closed the case without charges in 2015. Senate investigators found that while progressive groups were also scrutinized, the delays and burdensome inquiries disproportionately affected conservative-leaning applicants. The episode became a landmark in debates over government suppression of political speech through bureaucratic leverage.