IRS tracked taxpayers political affiliation

"As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states."

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"The bottom line is that we have never used this information,? said John Lipold, an IRS spokesman. ?There are strict laws in place that forbid it.?

"...the 20 states in which the IRS collected party affiliation information were Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin."