IRS Doesn’t Do Enough to Spot Charities’ Terrorist Ties, Report Says

The Internal Revenue Service does not do enough to identify nonprofit organizations that may be linked to terrorists, a federal agency has said in a new study, according to the Associated Press.

The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration noted that the tax agency uses a limited “terrorist watch list” and manually checks 300,000 tax returns for links to suspected groups or individuals; IRS employees mostly just look for “Middle Eastern-sounding names” to decide which groups warrant further review, the report found.

“Beyond the potential for discrimination, the process raises concerns that the IRS is allowing individuals with terrorist connections to avoid detection simply because their names do not fit into a narrow, predetermined profile,” wrote Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The article did not contain a response from the IRS.

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