Fact check: False claim that Congress voted to exempt itself from tax audits

Bayliss Wagner, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Congress voted to exempt its members from tax audits

The recently signed climate and health care spending bill includes a provision to help the Internal Revenue Service increase enforcement and process a years-long audit backlog.

Soon after the bill was passed, some social media users shared claims that the same House and Senate voted to spare themselves from IRS audits.

"In order to safeguard democracy, Congress has voted to exempt itself and its members from upcoming IRS audits," reads text in an Aug. 17 Facebook post that more than 140 users shared. "#unbelievable."

The post includes a photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several other Democratic representatives standing in front of a crowd of photographers. The same claim and image appear in dozens of other posts on Facebook, most of which include a screenshot of a tweet from Twitter page News That Matters that has accrued more than 13,000 retweets and 18,000 likes since it was posted on Aug. 17.

"Of course, rules for me not for thee!" one user commented on a Facebook post of the claim.

The claim, however, is false. The IRS says it never happened, and the claim originated on a website known for satirical content.

USA TODAY reached out to News that Matters and a Facebook user who shared the post for comment.

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No evidence for the claim

USA TODAY did not find any credible news or government reports that Congress voted to exempt its members from tax audits.

"This information is untrue," IRS spokesperson Bruce Friedland wrote to USA TODAY in an email. "There is no such special exemption. All tax filers are treated equally under the tax law."

Friedland added that the IRS "has strong safeguards in place to ensure that audits are conducted only based on what is on the tax return – and not other factors."

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The photo used in the social media claim shows Pelosi and six House committee chairs at a press conference on Dec. 18, 2019, according to similar photos from the event and video from C-SPAN. The topic of the conference was the House's vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.

News that Matters, the Twitter account that posted the same claim several hours before the Facebook post, regularly shares made-up stories that are humorous in nature and is linked to the clearly-labeled satirical website Genesius Times, as Politifact also reported. A number of its tweets are expanded on in Genesius Times articles that credit "News That Matters" as the author.

Though News That Matters does not label its content as satirical, it has pinned a tweet referencing satire to the top of its Twitter profile. "A new study shows that a shocking number of American adults have trouble spelling the word 'satire,' let alone recognizing it," the tweet reads.

Other tweets from the page include one that says Pope Francis "thinks a Muslim pope would be a 'great step forward' for Catholicism" and another that reads, "Every single House Republican voted against the 'Fix Every Problem in the World Instantly' Act."

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Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Congress voted to exempt its members from tax audits. An IRS spokesperson told USA TODAY that the claim is false and that "all tax filers are treated equally under the law."

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, Congress did not exempt members from IRS audits