IRS Viewed Favorably?

[LPC]

This is somewhat off-topic, but relevant to the anti-IRS theme that runs through almost all tax denial writing.

In an April 6-7 poll of registered voters conducted by Opinion Dynamics for Fox News, those polled were asked whether they had favorable or unfavorable views of a number of different individuals and organizations, such as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the Republican Party, etc.

The person most favorably viewed was President Obama, with a favorable rating by 50% of those polled. What's odd is that second place went to the Internal Revenue Service, with a 49% favorability rating. And that's not something recent, because the same pollsters reported that the IRS had a 49% favorability rating in June 2009, and 45% in April 2002.

Meanwhile, the Tea Party Movement came in at only 36%, trailing both the Republican Party at 40%, and the Democratic Party at 42%.

Other individuals fared much worse, with Nancy Pelosi at 29%, Harry Reid at 16%, and John Boehner at 12%. (John Boehner also recorded an impressive "never heard of him" rating of 56% among *Republicans,* which was actually somewhat higher than the "never heard of him" ratings by Democrats and Independents.)

But the idea that the IRS should be viewed more favorably than the Tea Party Movement is something that should drive most tax deniers crazy. (Or simply reinforce their patronizing view of most Americans as "sheeple.")

Too bad Fox News decided not to report on the results of the poll.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Given that a large percentage of people don't actually pay taxes, that shouldn't be surprising.

[Imalawman]

Given that a large percentage of people don't actually pay taxes, that shouldn't be surprising.

And another good size percentage actually get money from the IRS that they never paid in. I'd love them too if I got a refund of a couple thousand each year on top of my withholdings. Given that a large majority of those that take polls are lower income, it should not be surprising that the IRS would be viewed favorably.

Now if you asked the medium to large size businesses....

[Number Six]

The question for someone making a judgment for or against the IRS, is what is one's bias? Clearly, those who work for the government, or in some way benefit tangibly from it, are going to have a different attitude than someone who has gone through the proverbial ringer or "to the cleaners" because of an audit, or is in fear of doing so. Mothers with a bunch of kids, elderly folks getting benefits from government, people getting a disability check and military employees are going to have a markedly different take on government enforcement than, for example, single people running self-employed businesses paying the whole slew of taxes honestly. With confidentiality assumed, but not legally guaranteed in a poll, the responders are going to be leery of saying anything that could come back to bite them in case the pollster has workers who hope to collect a 15% finder's fee for the irascible, IRS-haters, who may be assumed to have reasonable fear that their non-filing or dishonest filing could be discovered and lead to enforcement action.

[.]

While "irascible, IRS-haters" no doubt exist and are no doubt delusional, they are few and far between and therefore have no statistically significant effect on polls, contrary to their goofy expectations of suddenly awakening the sleeping masses.