Reuters - Small Conservative Groups Describe Big Burdens of IRS Scrutiny

By Nick Carey, Reuters.com

For Kevin Kookogey, the Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of his one-man outfit providing conservative mentoring for students was so onerous he thought it was trying to deter him from political activity.

"It worked," said the Tennessean who ran the group Linchpins of Liberty. "I completely shut down and do my mentoring without fundraising so I can avoid getting audited."

Kookogey is one of many conservatives who complain about unfair treatment at the hands of the IRS, the U.S. tax service that admitted last Friday it had inappropriately singled out the Tea Party movement and other conservative groups for extra examination. . . .

The conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which provided legal aid to 27 targeted groups, said the intense scrutiny placed a hardship on its clients, whose average fundraising is around $3,000 to $4,000 a year.

"The IRS knew from the applications the size of the group and picked on the small ones figuring they wouldn't put up a fight," chief counsel Jay Sekulow said. "Most of the big guys got a pass.". . .

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