To urge the Internal Revenue Service to correct its policy of targeting tax-exempt status applications for additional review based on the applicant organization's presumed political affiliation.

WHEREAS, A recent report issued by the federal Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration ("Inspector General") found that, beginning in 2010, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") developed and used inappropriate criteria to review the applications of organizations applying for tax-exempt status; and

WHEREAS, Such criteria were based on the political names or policy positions of the applicant organizations; for example, the IRS asked employees to give additional scrutiny to applications from groups whose name included "Tea Party" or other "political-sounding" words; and

WHEREAS, The Inspector General found that organizations that applied for tax-exempt status and had their application flagged for further review experienced substantial delays and were asked to supply unnecessary information; and

WHEREAS, According to the Inspector General, the IRS should take corrective actions to ensure that applications are processed without unreasonable delay in a fair and impartial manner in the future; now therefore be it

RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 130th General Assembly of the State of Ohio, urge the IRS to take immediate action to correct its policies and cease targeting organizations applying for tax-exempt status based on the organization's political affiliation; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this resolution to the United States Secretary of the Treasury, the Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and the news media of Ohio.