By Pam Pollard
President Donald Trump is not wasting time identifying and slashing bureaucratic red tape and overreach by eliminating redundant and often unnecessary federal government operations. As Oklahomans, we should be pleased with the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress acting on the mandate from voters to eliminate the rampant abuse of power. Even with a full throttle approach, there is much of a mess from the Biden administration to clean up and one lingering problem is the unlawful targeting of business partnerships by the IRS.
Businesses operating as partnerships often take part in a lawful and commonplace practice known as basis shifting, where they best position assets in advance of a business transfer or sale. Now, due to a last minute regulation from the Biden administration, the IRS is threatening companies with a potential request for six years of business records, all of which the IRS already has. In addition, this new regulation is being administered by a special investigative unit stacked with career IRS staff tasked with issuing massive fines for noncompliance.
The Biden administration wants taxpayers to think basis shifting is a nefarious, unlawful practice when in fact the targeting of these business owners amounts to an economic shakedown of ethical American companies that are simply trying to best position themselves for future job growth and expansion. The IRS is plagued with real problems that are costing taxpayers on a daily basis. From overdue refunds to a lack of agency-wide transparency, to identity theft and more, there is more important work for IRS agents to be doing than targeting lawful business owners.
This is classic Democratic governance being managed by IRS career staffers and it needs to stop.
As a former chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, I am fortunate to have helped champion strong conservatives throughout our state. Our Congressional delegation has long been known to be stalwarts in the fight against big government overreach and regulatory waste, and I trust that this hard work will continue in earnest in conjunction with President Trump and the DOGE team.
Specifically, Representative Hern has been vocal about standing with the president “100%” in his fight “to stare down the deep state and root out this reckless misuse of taxpayer money.” Senator Lankford has even released his own government waste book that serves as a valuable guide to the Trump administration as they work to clean up the federal government.
Let’s be frank, there is a lot of waste, fraud and abuse to keep an eye on, and monitoring it all isn’t easy. As we head for tax season, lets focus on the IRS as a prime target for reform. The Trump administration needs to roll back the last-minute regulation targeting partnerships and expeditiously eliminate the special pass-throughs investigation unit to ensure policies being carried out by career IRS liberals within the agency are eradicated and the American people are guaranteed the reforms needed to get our country back on track.
Pam Pollard is the former Republican National Committeewoman for Oklahoma and is currently the Director of Finance for the National Federation of Republican Women (NRFW). Previously, she served as the Chair of the Oklahoma Republican Party, Treasurer of the National Federation of Republican Women, and was the President of Pollard Campaign Accounting & Consulting.
