IRS loses its shoebox of receipts, can't find $4 million

The IRS cannot find their receipts for a 2010 agency conference. This means they cannot meet the same standard to which they hold millions of Americans each year. The missing receipts total some $4 million.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The IRS is catching fire as details of a controversial 2010 conference in Anaheim are exposed to public scrutiny. According to its own admission, the IRS held a conference that included gifts, the professional production of video spoofs, and upscale hotel rooms next door to Disneyland in California.

That conference cost taxpayers $49 million.

The audit revealed that IRS officials spent $50,000 on a video parody of Star Trek and another skit that included 15 IRS executives and managers dancing on a stage.

Another $44,000 went to pay two keynote speakers, one of whom created paintings on stage during his presentation. One of those paintings went missing. Some $64,000 was spent on gifts, without detail of what those gifts were.

And $133,000 was spent to pay two event planners to set up the entire conference.

During the course of the audit however, the IRS admitted that it couldn't find the receipts for about $4 million in expenses. The news was broke by CNN on Anderson Cooper's newscast. Correspondent Dana Bash told Cooper, "That is for real, Anderson. It is really hard to believe, but the IG report explicitly says, 'IRS management could not provide any documentation detailing how this money was spent.' At the time, three years ago, this is also hard to believe, keeping track of and reporting costs of conferences wasn't required at the IRS. Shoddy record-keeping wasn't limited to just these videos. The IG couldn't even verify the overall cost of the conference."

The IRS is under intense scrutiny following allegations that their agents and possibly leadership, deliberately targeted conservative groups for "extra scrutiny," or harassment.

The investigation has revealed a dysfunctional government agency, drunk with power, and egregious in its errors. Congressional investigators are working to learn who knew what and when with regards to the targeting of conservative groups, and now the loss of $4 million in receipts from an excessively lavish gathering.

It seems ironic that the IRS cannot meet the same standards for documentation and integrity to which it holds all other Americans.

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