"Tax Trek: Into Darkness" - IRS Boldly Goes Where

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"Tax Trek: Into Darkness" - IRS Boldly Goes Where

Post by Riddick » 06-05-2013 02:11 PM



Watchdog Faults IRS over Star Trek Video, Luxury Hotel Suites
  • A spoof Star Trek video and lavish hotel suites for government workers were singled out on Tuesday by a government watchdog in criticizing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's conference planning and budgeting from 2010 through 2012.

    In a report that the IRS has already acknowledged as pointing out "inappropriate" spending, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) faulted the agency specifically for a 2010 conference in Anaheim, California, that cost $4.1 million.

    Some of the funding for the conference came from unused monies originally intended for hiring enforcement employees, TIGTA chief J. Russell George said in the report.

    "Certain of the IRS's expenses associated with the Anaheim conference do not appear to be a good use of taxpayer funds," said George, whose watchdog office has played a key role in the controversy that engulfed the IRS more than three weeks ago.
    ...
    The report found that the IRS spent $50,187 on videos for the Anaheim conference in 2010, including a Star Trek parody that featured IRS executives portraying characters from the television show in a tax-themed skit.

    The IRS told TIGTA that the purpose of the video was to highlight issues facing the Small Business/Self Employed Division of the agency, according to the report.

    The report said hotel suites were occupied by IRS executives at the conference. The division's commissioner, for example, stayed five nights in a suite with a private bedroom, living area, conference table, wet bar, and billiard table, it said.
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