The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "IRS" ...
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Investigating the IRS
As the national deficit soared, WTHR exposed fraud, confusion and government mismanagement that resulted in illegal immigrants getting billions of dollars in improper tax credits and refunds from the Internal Revenue Service. WTHR gained unparalleled access to tax records and immigrant communities to show exactly how the fraud was committed. The investigation revealed the IRS had known about the widespread problems for a decade but failed to act, and that IRS managers actively encouraged their tax examiners to ignore blatant signs of fraud. WTHR’s investigation quickly gained national attention, attracted more than 9 million online views, sparked intense debate and action by Congress, and triggered immediate reforms by the IRS. Following a series of in-depth follow-ups by WTHR and an Inspector General audit that confirmed all of WTHR’s findings, the IRS announced final rule changes in December designed to reduce the massive fraud and to save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Tags: tax fraud; taxes; taxpayers; Internal Revenue Service
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Depreciating Values
Our seven month investigation revealed how a long time property assessor manipulated property values for a handful of wealthy citizens and political supporters, so they would pay less in property taxes. We also showed how some large apartment complexes disappeared from the county tax rolls. Now the state is seeking to collect back taxes from nearly 200 property owners going back three years and the FBI and IRS are investigating.
Tags: property taxes; tax rolls; property
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"A Crack in the Swiss Vault"
This investigative story takes an in-depth look into offshore banking, specifically in Switzerland. Bradley Birkenfeld is an American citizen serving extensive prison time for revealing to the U.S. Government that "he and his colleagues" had been secretly helping their "American customers evade hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes" through private banking divisions in Geneva.
Tags: taxes; tax evasion; Geneva; Switzerland; UBS; banking; investments; IRS; Department of Justice
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"Little Leagues, Big Costs"
This five-day series chronicles the experiences with youth sports of high school and college athletes and coaches. By establishing "baseline data" that has been previously unreported, Dispatch reporters found a "corrupted" sports program overrun with angry parents and practices that cause severe injury to young athletes. Rising costs and financial competitions are added pressures to the industry.
Tags: youth-sports; IRS 990s; NCAA; NCAA Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act; Nexis; Ohio State; Gene Smith; Ohio High School Athletic Association; OHSAA; OSU
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"Charity Starts at Top"
Certain charities have been paying their executives "excessive salaries" despite federal laws designed to prohibit such an act, the Observer reports. Loosely enforced rules and a lack of staffing in the IRS office that audits nonprofits allows many of the large payouts to go unnoticed.
Tags: David Cerullo; Franklin Graham; Inspiration Networks; Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse; City of Light
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Glock's Secret Path to Profits
The Austrian handgun, Glock, has become the largest handgun supplier to US law enforcement. This investigation revealed the hidden history behind the success and the troubling business dealings within the company. This story also reveals the difficulty US regulators have overseeing international businesses.
Tags: Handguns; Business; Law Enforcement; Pistols; Supplier; Gaston Glock; Police; Firearms; Guns; Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
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Fighting New Jersey's Tax Crunch
The series provided a detailed analysis of New Jersey's dysfunctional property tax system, which has the highest costs in the nation. Using U.S. census data, IRS data, 10 years of local tax information, and more than 40 databases of local and state employee payrolls, we found that the system had evolved into a juggernaut that was destroying the fiscal and social fabric economy of the state.
Tags: property tax; racial disparity; assessments; tax breaks; economic segregation;
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A Question of Calculation: Many charity businesses manage to avoid paying federal taxes
The business arm of more than half of major US charities earn profits without paying taxes due to vague exemption in the tax code.
Tags: charity; charities; taxes; tax-exempt; tax code; nonprofits; business; earnings; profit; unrelated business income tax (UBIT); IRS
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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Into and out of west-central Florida
Analysis of IRS migration data showed that a large number of people were moving into the Tampa Bay area between 2000 and 2005. Most of those newcomers were from elsewhere in Florida.
Tags: data analysis; IRS; population; Florida; migration;