A statement released from the office of Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, says what's good for the government should be good for taxpayers.
So there might come a time in the future when a letter starting out, "Dear IRS, The dog ate my tax receipts," would be a perfectly acceptable response to a government inquiry about those "health cost" deductions for a hot tub and the trips to the Bahamas.
The word came from Stockman's office on Friday after a contentious hearing in Congress where the chief of the IRS said there was no apology due for the agency's loss of months worth of emails involving IRS agents and managers suspected of creating and managing a program for the persecution of conservative groups.
"Taxpayers who do not produce documents for the Internal Revenue Service will be able to offer a variety of dubious excuses under legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) a week after the IRS offered an incredibly dubious excuse for its failure to turn documents over to House investigators," the announcement said.
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"The United States was founded on the belief government is subservient and accountable to the people. Taxpayers shouldn't be expected to follow laws the Obama administration refuses to follow themselves," said Stockman. "Taxpayers should be allowed to offer the same flimsy, obviously made-up excuses the Obama administration uses."
The announcement said under the plan, called "The Dog Ate My Tax Return Act," "taxpayers who do not provide documents requested by the IRS can claim one of the following reasons:"
Those include:
- The dog ate my tax receipts
- Convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction
- Traded documents for five terrorists
- Burned for warmth while lost in the Yukon
- Left on table in Hillary’s Book Room
- Received water damage in the trunk of Ted Kennedy’s car
- Forgot in gun case sold to Mexican drug lords
- Forced to recycle by municipal Green Czar
- Was short on toilet paper while camping
- At this point, what difference does it make?
His office confirmed to WND the resolution is being introduced.
It comes just a week after the IRS refused to turn over to House investigators emails from former Exempt Organizations Divison director Lois Lerner that" would implicate agency personnel in illegal targeting of citizens critical of President Barack Obama," the congressman's announcement said.
The feared federal agency said a "computer glitch" had erased the hard drives of all incriminating evidence. The IRS further claimed the hard drives are not available for forensic investigation as they had just been destroyed for recycling.
The resolution states:
"The resolution may be cited as the 'Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Resolution.'
"Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must allow taxpayers the same lame excuses for missing documentation that the IRS itself is currently proffering
"Whereas, the IRS claims that convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction is sufficient justification not to produce specific, critical documentation; and,
"Whereas, fairness and Due Process demand that the American taxpayer be granted no less latitude than we afford the bureaucrats employed presently at the IRS;
"Now, therefore, be it resolved that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that unless and until the Internal Revenue Service produces all documentation demanded by subpoena or otherwise by the House of Representatives, or produces an excuse that passes the red face test,
"All taxpayers shall be given the benefit of the doubt when not producing critical documentation, so long as the taxpayer’s excuse therefore falls into one of the following categories:"
Listed are the 10 excuses.