ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced on Thursday the launch of the Florida IRS Transparency Portal, which is meant to help state officials track possible discrimination by the IRS.
In a release, state officials said the portal allows individuals, private businesses and nonprofits to report evidence of discrimination by IRS operatives.
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Those parties can submit complaints about individual IRS agents through the portal, allowing state officials to investigate the potential discrimination.
“We will take this information to look for patterns on how the IRS is targeting Floridians, which will help us craft laws to protect our businesses,” Patronis said. “We also want to provide the public with a tool where they can report harassment by the IRS. I’ve always felt that transparency is the best disinfectant, and if there’s an IRS agent who’s bullying a Florida resident, I want to know about it.”
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Complaints can include incidents where agents target groups on the basis of certain political causes, practices or beliefs.
During an IRS roundtable in Orlando, Donna Barrett — a resident of southwest Florida — claimed her organization had been harassed by an IRS agent, state officials reported.
Barrett explained that an IRS agent had shown up at her workplace because her employer hadn’t turned in certain forms to the IRS, and the agent wanted to see whether he could pick up copies. She continued, saying that she hadn’t received notice about the issue by the IRS and that the agent told her he was instructed to visit companies and see whether they had any valuables on-site, a release shows.
Patronis also pointed to journalist Matt Taibbi, who was covering how the FBI may have been influencing policies on several social media platforms regarding topics like COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election. According to Patronis, the IRS visited Taibbi at his home on the same day he was expected to present his findings before Congress.
“The second threat comes in the form of something a little more insidious: the weaponization of certain federal agencies against Americans. We all know about how the Tea Party was targeted by the IRS in 2013. They targeted Tea Party groups, demanded unnecessary and sensitive information — like donor information — and dragged their feet on approving their nonprofit status,” Patronis said. “The IRS was forced to apologize for it, but I’m afraid they’re up to their old tricks again.”
Additionally, Patronis criticized the agency for its role in facilitating federal deficit spending.
“The federal government is running a deficit, so every $3 in revenue the IRS takes in — $4 goes out the door. That’s deficit spending in a nutshell, and it’s not sustainable,” Patronis said.
For more information or to file a complaint, visit the Florida IRS Transparency Portal here.
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