Elda Furry (June 2, 1885 – February 1, 1966), known professionally as Hedda Hopper , was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, over 35 million people read her columns.
121-554: A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist . Hopper continued to write her gossip column until her death in 1966. Her work appeared in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended feud with Louella Parsons , an arch-rival and fellow gossip columnist. Hopper
242-477: A fascist plot to seize the White House , known as the " Business Plot ". Contemporary newspapers widely reported the plot as a hoax. While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of "wild scheme" was contemplated and discussed. It has been reported that while Dickstein served on this committee and the subsequent Special investigation Committee, he
363-616: A "vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man". As a result, Hearst sent Parsons a letter complaining that he had learned about Citizen Kane from Hopper, and not her. In the early 1950s, the Los Angeles Examiner ran on its front page above Parsons's byline: "Ingrid Bergman Baby Due in Three Months at Rome". Bergman left her husband, neurologist Peter Lindstrom, to live in Italy with director Roberto Rossellini , but
484-499: A 2024 study, "an additional $ 1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile yields more than $ 12 in revenue, while audits of below-median income taxpayers yield $ 5." As of 2018, it saw a 15 percent reduction in its workforce , including a decline of more than 25 percent of its enforcement staff. Nevertheless, during the 2023 fiscal year, the agency processed more than 271.4 million tax returns including more than 163.1 million individual income tax returns. For FY 2023,
605-567: A Revolutionary War soldier and passed out copies of the United States Declaration of Independence to those in attendance. Rubin then "blew giant gum bubbles, while his co-witnesses taunted the committee with Nazi salutes ". Rubin attended another session dressed as Santa Claus . On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing the United States flag. Hoffman quipped to
726-416: A columnist, and her role was supported by other studio chiefs, which saw it as a step in offsetting Louella's monopolistic power. Gossip columnist Liz Smith stated that: "The studios created both of them. And they thought they could control both of them. But they became Frankenstein monsters escaped from the labs." Hopper and Parsons had a combined readership of 75 million in a country of 160 million. Hopper
847-578: A courtroom via criminal prosecutions to curtail the activities of some of these groups, IRS can do by administrative action." By 1986, limited electronic filing of tax returns was possible. The Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 ("RRA 98") changed the organization from geographically oriented to an organization based on four operating divisions. It added "10 deadly sins" that require immediate termination of IRS employees found to have committed certain misconduct. Enforcement activities declined. The IRS Oversight Board noted that
968-460: A decision that contradicted Hylton v. United States . The federal government scrambled to raise money. In 1906, with the election of President Theodore Roosevelt , and later his successor William Howard Taft , the United States saw a populist movement for tax reform. This movement culminated during then-candidate Woodrow Wilson 's election of 1912 and in February 1913, the ratification of
1089-426: A decisive role in constructing an image of a radical threat to the United States during the first Red Scare. U.S. Representative Hamilton Fish III (R-NY), who was a fervent anti-communist, introduced, on May 5, 1930, House Resolution 180, which proposed to establish a committee to investigate communist activities in the United States. The resulting committee, Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in
1210-461: A decline in the number of paper returns being processed each year. As a result, the IRS implemented a consolidation plan for its paper tax return processing centers, closing five of its ten processing centers between 2003 and 2011. The agency closed two more centers - one in 2019 and another in 2021 - as e-file use continued to expand. E-filed tax returns accounted for 90% of all returns submitted during
1331-482: A free agent in New York; in 1923 she moved to Hollywood and became a contract player for Louis B. Mayer Pictures. She appeared in more than 120 movies over her 23 year acting career. As Hopper's movie career waned in the mid-1930s, she looked for other sources of income. In 1935, she agreed to write a weekly Hollywood gossip column for The Washington Herald at $ 50 a week (equivalent to $ 1,111 in 2023), which
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#17327823839961452-462: A government agency." Requard admitted that he saw the returns but denied that he leaked them. Reporter Jack White of The Providence Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting about Nixon's tax returns. Nixon, with a salary of $ 200,000, paid $ 792.81 in federal income tax in 1970 and $ 878.03 in 1971, with deductions of $ 571,000 for donating "vice-presidential papers". This was one of
1573-473: A guardian of moral standards in Hollywood and bragged that she need only wag her finger at a producer and he would break off an adulterous affair instantly. One of Hopper's victims was screenwriter Dalton Trumbo , who was blacklisted throughout the late 1940s and 1950s partially through Hopper's consistently negative coverage of his Communist Party membership. When actor Kirk Douglas hired Trumbo to write
1694-611: A leading contender for the Best Actress Oscar. Such was Hopper's influence that she was credited with swinging the decision in Crawford's favor when she won the award. Hopper's support has been described as the first instance of lobbying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to favor a certain nominee. Hopper lobbied for African American actor James Baskett to receive an Academy Award for his performance in
1815-673: A man 27 years her senior. She also objected to him for remaining a British citizen and not becoming an American, which she considered an act of ingratitude towards a country which had given him so much. When in 1943, he denied that he was the father of 22-year old actress Joan Barry’s child, Hopper assisted Barry in filing a paternity suit against Chaplin, launching a campaign of attrition against him through her column, and calling for him to be deported for his " moral turpitude ". She defended her behavior by stating that she wished to make an example of Chaplin as "a warning to others involved in dubious relationships." Her grudge deepened when, later in
1936-516: A married man's child. Parsons had allegedly received the tip from Howard Hughes , who was incensed at Bergman for being unable to shoot a film for him as promised. Reportedly, whereas Hopper was more inclined to see their much-publicized antagonism as funny and good for business, Parsons took it personally and saw Hopper as a rival in every possible way. Hopper also referred to Doc Martin as "that goddamn clap doctor", which infuriated Parsons. Louis B. Mayer assisted Hopper in establishing herself as
2057-489: A messy tax season on several fronts. The email was sent by IRS Commissioner Koskinen to workers. Koskinen predicted the IRS would shut down operations for two days later that year which would result in unpaid furloughs for employees and service cuts for taxpayers . Koskinen also said delays to IT investments of more than $ 200 million may delay new taxpayer protections against identity theft . Also in January 2015,
2178-409: A new login and ID verification process for several of its online tools, including general account access, Identity Protection (IP) PIN setup, and payment plan applications. As part of the agency's Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) initiative, the process included the use of third-party facial recognition technologies to confirm taxpayer identities. The facial recognition requirement
2299-451: A number of false statements. Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat his charges outside a Congressional committee, which Chambers did. Hiss then sued for libel, leading Chambers to produce copies of State Department documents which he claimed Hiss had given him in 1938. Hiss denied this before a grand jury, was indicted for perjury, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned. The present-day House of Representatives website on HUAC states, "But in
2420-569: A present, as they had made the first bid after the story about the unusual gift made the news. During World War II, Hopper's only child, actor William "Bill" Hopper , served in the Navy in Underwater Demolitions . She chastised Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , the son of her old friend Douglas Fairbanks , because she thought the younger Fairbanks was shirking his duty to his country. Fairbanks Jr. recalled in his memoirs Salad Days that he
2541-468: A report critical of the lack of protection of privacy in TAS, and the project was abandoned in 1978. In 1995, the IRS began to use the public Internet for electronic filing. Since the introduction of e-filing , self-paced online tax services have flourished, augmenting the work of tax accountants, who were sometimes replaced. By 2002, more than a third of all tax returns were filed electronically. This led to
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#17327823839962662-806: A result, the IRS now functions under four major operating divisions: The Large Business & International (LB&I) division was known as the Large and Mid-Size Business division prior to a name change on October 1, 2010. The IRS is headquartered in Washington, D.C. , and does most of its computer programming in Maryland. It processes paper tax returns sent by mail and e-filed tax returns at three IRS center locations: Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Ogden, Utah. The IRS also operates computer centers in three locations: Detroit, Michigan; Martinsburg, West Virginia; and Memphis, Tennessee. The IRS
2783-564: A scene from All the King's Men (1949). On January 10, 1960, a television special, Hedda Hopper's Hollywood , aired on NBC . Hosted by Hopper, guest interviews included an eclectic mix of past, current and future stars: Lucille Ball , Francis X. Bushman , Liza Minnelli , John Cassavetes , Robert Cummings , Marion Davies , Walt Disney , Janet Gaynor , Bob Hope , Hope Lange , Anthony Perkins , Debbie Reynolds , James Stewart , and Gloria Swanson . Hopper had several acting roles during
2904-414: A standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945. Democratic Representative Edward J. Hart of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman. Under the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the 79th Congress , the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution ". Under this mandate,
3025-515: A system to investigate applicants for leave clearance, and step up Americanization and assimilation efforts largely coincided with WRA goals. In 1946, the committee considered opening investigations into the Ku Klux Klan , but decided against doing so, prompting white supremacist committee member John E. Rankin (D-Miss.) to remark, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution." Instead of
3146-564: A tax on income and leading to the creation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue . In 1953, the agency was renamed the Internal Revenue Service, and in subsequent decades underwent numerous reforms and reorganizations, most significantly in the 1990s. Since its establishment, the IRS has been largely responsible for collecting the revenue needed to fund the United States federal government, with the rest being funded either through
3267-577: A weekly program that continued until June 3, 1946. Hopper moved back to CBS beginning on October 5, 1946 with a weekly 15-minute program, This Is Hollywood , sponsored by Procter & Gamble . It ran until June 28, 1947. Expanding to 30 minutes on NBC , she was host of a variety series, The Hedda Hopper Show , broadcast from October 14, 1950, to November 11, 1950 on Saturdays, then from November 19, 1950, to May 20, 1951 on Sundays. This program featured music, talk and dramatized excerpts from movies with well-known guests, such as Broderick Crawford reprising
3388-630: A writer until her death, producing six daily columns and a Sunday column for the Chicago Tribune syndicate , as well as writing articles for celebrity magazines such as Photoplay . On May 8, 1913, Hopper married actor and singer DeWolf Hopper in New Jersey . They had one child, William , who later played Paul Drake in the Perry Mason series. The couple divorced in 1922. Hopper died on February 1, 1966, of double pneumonia at
3509-461: Is also judged to be not only not overwhelming but entirely circumstantial. As a result, and also given how many documents remain classified, it is unlikely that a truly conclusive answer will ever be reached. In the wake of the downfall of McCarthy (who never served in the House, nor on HUAC; he was a U.S. Senator), the prestige of HUAC began a gradual decline in the late 1950s. By 1959, the committee
3630-473: Is blamed for $ 4 billion worth of fraudulent 2012 tax refunds by the IRS. Fraudulent claims were made with the use of stolen taxpayer identification and Social Security numbers, with returns sent to addresses both in the US and internationally. Following the release of the findings, the IRS stated that it resolved most of the identity theft cases of 2013 within 120 days, while the average time to resolve cases from
3751-447: Is currently led by Daniel Werfel , who became Commissioner of Internal Revenue on March 13, 2023. He succeeded Douglas O'Donnell , who served as Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue after Charles P. Rettig 's term as Commissioner ended on November 12, 2022. There have been 50 commissioners of Internal Revenue and 28 acting commissioners since the agency's creation in 1862. From May 22, 2013, to December 23, 2013, senior official at
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3872-744: The Affordable Care Act . The IRS originates from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue , a federal office created in 1862 to assess the nation's first income tax to fund the American Civil War . The temporary measure funded over a fifth of the Union's war expenses before being allowed to expire a decade later. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, authorizing Congress to impose
3993-484: The Blue Network 's Brenthouse beginning in February 1939. She debuted as host of her own radio program, The Hedda Hopper Show , on November 6, 1939. Sponsored by Sunkist , she was heard on CBS three times a week for 15 minutes until October 30, 1942. From October 2, 1944, to September 3, 1945, Armour Treet sponsored a once-a-week program. On September 10, 1945, she moved to ABC , still sponsored by Armour, for
4114-603: The Government Operations Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House. The Overman Committee was a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by North Carolina Democratic Senator Lee Slater Overman that operated from September 1918 to June 1919. The subcommittee investigated German as well as " Bolshevik elements" in the United States. This subcommittee
4235-486: The House Un-American Activities Committee ( HUAC ), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives , created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having fascist and communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946, and from 1969 onwards it
4356-653: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, and was a guest and speaker of the Women's Division at the 1956 Republican National Convention held in San Francisco to renominate the Eisenhower – Nixon ticket. She was so well known for her conservatism that rumor had it she planned to stand up, unfurl an American flag, and walk out of the 23rd Academy Awards ceremony in March 1951 if Jose Ferrer , who
4477-545: The National Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC. In 1938, Hallie Flanagan , the head of the Federal Theatre Project , was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge the project was overrun with communists. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while an administrative clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. It
4598-615: The Office of Management and Budget Daniel Werfel was acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Werfel, who attended law school at the University of North Carolina and attained a master's degree from Duke University , prepared the government for a potential shutdown in 2011 by determining which services that would remain in existence. No IRS commissioner has served more than five years and one month since Guy Helvering, who served 10 years until 1943. The most recent commissioner to serve
4719-507: The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution : The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. This granted Congress the specific power to impose an income tax without regard to apportionment among the states by population. By February 1913, 36 states had ratified
4840-491: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (collecting duties and tariffs ) or the Federal Reserve (purchasing U.S. treasuries ). The IRS faces periodic controversy and opposition over its methods, constitutionality, and the principle of taxation generally. In recent years, the agency has struggled with budget cuts, under-staffed workforce, outdated technology and reduced morale, all of which collectively result in
4961-573: The UC Berkeley , Stanford , and other local colleges, and dragged them down the marble steps beneath the rotunda, leaving some seriously injured. Soviet affairs expert William Mandel , who had been subpoenaed to testify, angrily denounced the committee and the police in a blistering statement which was aired repeatedly for years thereafter on Pacifica Radio station KPFA in Berkeley . An anti-communist propaganda film, Operation Abolition ,
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5082-869: The United States federal government , which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code , the main body of the federal statutory tax law. It is an agency of the Department of the Treasury and led by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue , who is appointed to a five-year term by the President of the United States. The duties of the IRS include providing tax assistance to taxpayers; pursuing and resolving instances of erroneous or fraudulent tax filings; and overseeing various benefits programs, including
5203-534: The War Relocation Authority (WRA) and news that some former inmates would be allowed to leave camp and Nisei soldiers to return to the West Coast, the committee investigated charges of fifth column activity in the camps. A number of anti-WRA arguments were presented in subsequent hearings, but Director Dillon Myer debunked the more inflammatory claims. The investigation was presented to
5324-494: The master of ceremonies , and Walt Disney as one of the speakers. Others in attendance included Ronald Reagan , Barbara Stanwyck , Ann Sothern , Ginger Rogers , Randolph Scott , Adolphe Menjou , Dick Powell , Gary Cooper , Edward Arnold , and William Bendix . Despite the good turnout at the rally, most Hollywood celebrities who took a public position sided with the Roosevelt - Truman ticket. Hopper strongly supported
5445-523: The 1946 film Song of the South . Baskett would ultimately receive an honorary award for his performance. Actress ZaSu Pitts compared Hopper to "a ferret". Joan Bennett sent Hopper a "$ 35 valentine. The $ 35 went for a skunk which carried a note: 'Won't you be my valentine? Nobody else will. I stink and so do you.'" Hopper reportedly commented that the skunk was beautifully behaved. She called it Joan, and passed it on to actor James Mason and his wife as
5566-453: The 1960s progressed, increasingly becoming the target of political satirists and the defiance of a new generation of political activists. HUAC subpoenaed Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the 1968 Democratic National Convention . The Yippies used the media attention to make a mockery of the proceedings. Rubin came to one session dressed as
5687-532: The 1990s, Soviet archives conclusively revealed that Hiss had been a spy on the Kremlin's payroll." However, in the 1990s, senior Soviet intelligence officials, after consulting their archive, stated they found nothing to support that theory. In 1995, the National Security Agency 's Venona papers have been alleged to have provided overwhelming evidence that he was a spy, but the same evidence
5808-456: The 2011/2012 tax period was 312 days. In September 2014, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen expressed concern over the organization's ability to handle Obamacare and administer premium tax credits that help people pay for health plans from the health law's insurance exchanges. It will also enforce the law's individual mandate , which requires most Americans to hold health insurance. In January 2015, Fox News obtained an email which predicted
5929-460: The 2021 filing season. In 2003, the IRS struck a deal with tax software vendors: The IRS would not develop online filing software and, in return, software vendors would provide free e-filing to most Americans. In 2009, 70% of filers qualified for free electronic filing of federal returns. According to an inspector general's report, released in November 2013, identity theft in the United States
6050-521: The 77th Congress, and alleged that certain cultural traits – Japanese loyalty to the Emperor, the number of Japanese fishermen in the US, and the Buddhist faith – were evidence for Japanese espionage. With the exception of Rep. Herman Eberharter (D-Pa.), the members of the committee seemed to support internment, and its recommendations to expedite the impending segregation of "troublemakers", establish
6171-506: The CBS television series What’s My Line? , included a chapter in which Hopper asserted their relationship was a fact. Wilding sued Hopper for libel and won. Hopper was an advocate for actress Joan Crawford , whose career suffered in the early 1940s after she was labelled " Box-Office Poison " and forced to resign from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . In 1945, Hopper reprinted a press release for Mildred Pierce in her column, which described Crawford as
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#17327823839966292-661: The Fish Committee and the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties; however, it concentrated its efforts on communists. It was chaired by Martin Dies Jr. (D-Tex.), and therefore known as the Dies Committee. Its records are held by
6413-614: The House investigations, most studios produced a number of anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda films such as The Red Menace (August 1949), The Red Danube (October 1949), The Woman on Pier 13 (October 1949), Guilty of Treason (May 1950, about the ordeal and trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty ), I Was a Communist for the FBI (May 1951, Academy Award nominated for best documentary 1951, also serialized for radio), Red Planet Mars (May 1952), and John Wayne 's Big Jim McLain (August 1952). Universal-International Pictures
6534-472: The IRS collected approximately $ 4.7 trillion, which is approximately 96 percent of the operational funding for the federal government; funding widely throughout to different aspects of American society , from education and healthcare to national defense and infrastructure. In July 1862, during the American Civil War , President Abraham Lincoln and Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1862 , creating
6655-485: The IRS was tasked with enforcement of laws relating to prohibition of alcohol sales and manufacture ; this was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice in 1930. After repeal in 1933, the IRS resumed collection of taxes on beverage alcohol. The alcohol, tobacco and firearms activities of the bureau were segregated into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 1972. A new tax act
6776-753: The Klan, HUAC concentrated on investigating the possibility that the American Communist Party had infiltrated the Works Progress Administration , including the Federal Theatre Project and the Federal Writers' Project . Twenty years later, in 1965–1966, however, the committee did conduct an investigation into Klan activities under chairman Edwin Willis (D-La.). The House Committee on Un-American Activities became
6897-669: The Ku Klux Klan. The resulting investigation resulted in numerous Klansmen remaining silent and giving evasive answers. The House of Representatives voted to cite seven Klan leaders, including Robert Shelton , for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over Klan records. Shelton was found guilty, and was sentenced to one year in prison, plus a $ 1,000 fine. Following his conviction, three other Klan leaders, Robert Scoggin, Bob Jones , and Calvin Craig, also pleaded guilty. Scoggin and Jones were each sentenced to one year in prison, while Craig
7018-753: The Union raised 21% of its war revenue through income taxes. After the Civil War, Reconstruction , railroads, and transforming the North and South war machines towards peacetime required public funding. However, in 1872, seven years after the war, lawmakers allowed the temporary Civil War income tax to expire. Income taxes evolved, but in 1894 the Supreme Court declared the Income Tax of 1894 unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. ,
7139-699: The United States commonly known as the Fish Committee, undertook extensive investigations of people and organizations suspected of being involved with or supporting communist activities in the United States. Among the committee's targets were the American Civil Liberties Union and communist presidential candidate William Z. Foster . The committee recommended granting the United States Department of Justice more authority to investigate communists, and strengthening of immigration and deportation laws to keep communists out of
7260-655: The United States. From 1934 to 1937, the committee, now named the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities, chaired by John William McCormack ( D - Mass. ) and Samuel Dickstein (D-NY), held public and private hearings and collected testimony filling 4,300 pages. The Special Committee was widely known as the McCormack–Dickstein committee. Its mandate
7381-675: The age of 80 in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The probate value of Hopper's estate was $ 472,661 gross and $ 306,679 net. She is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Altoona , Pennsylvania. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Hopper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313½ Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood . House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities ( HCUA ), popularly
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#17327823839967502-471: The change to the Constitution. It was further ratified by six more states by March. Of the 48 states at the time, 42 ratified it. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah rejected the amendment; Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida did not take up the issue. Though the constitutional amendment to allow the federal government to collect income taxes was proposed by President Taft in 1909, the 16th Amendment
7623-526: The committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against Alger Hiss in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering communist subversion. The chief investigator
7744-537: The committee for five hours about a "Jewish Communist conspiracy" to take control of the US government. Moseley was supported by Donald Shea of the American Gentile League , whose statement was deleted from the public record as the committee found it so objectionable. The committee also put together an argument for the internment of Japanese Americans known as the "Yellow Report". Organized in response to rumors of Japanese Americans being coddled by
7865-418: The committee was renamed as the Internal Security Committee in 1969. The House Committee on Internal Security was formally terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress. The committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary Committee. Source: Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) is the revenue service for
7986-450: The decline in enforcement activities has "rais[ed] questions about tax compliance and fairness to the vast majority of citizens who pay all their taxes". In June 2012, the IRS Oversight Board recommended to Treasury a fiscal year 2014 budget of $ 13.074 billion for the Internal Revenue Service. On December 20, 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 . It was signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017. In
8107-409: The editorial board of The New York Times called the IRS budget cuts penny-wise-and-pound-foolish, where for every dollar of cuts in the budget, six were lost in tax revenue. A 2020 Treasury Department audit found the IRS had improved its identity verification system offerings for taxpayers, but was still behind in fully meeting digital identity requirements. The following year, the IRS announced
8228-413: The entertainment industry. In 1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such as Mission to Moscow , The North Star , and Song of Russia —could be considered pro-Soviet propaganda , but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war effort, and that they were made (in the case of Mission to Moscow ) at the request of White House officials. In response to
8349-399: The fifth wife of DeWolf Hopper , whose previous wives were named Ella, Ida, Edna and Nella. The similarity in names caused some friction, as he would sometimes call Elda by the name of one of his former wives. Consequently, Elda Hopper paid a numerologist $ 10 to tell her what name she should use, and the answer was "Hedda". She began acting in silent movies in 1915. Her motion picture debut
8470-480: The filing deadline was moved from March 15 to April 15. The Tax Reform Act of 1969 created the Alternative Minimum Tax . In 1969, Richard Nixon directed the IRS to audit his political opponents, as well as opponents of US involvement in the Vietnam War . The IRS's Activist Organizations Committee, later renamed the Special Services Staff, created a target list of more than 1,000 organizations and 4,000 individuals. A White House memo said that "What we cannot do in
8591-428: The form and the IRS checked the form for accuracy. The IRS's workload jumped by ten-fold, triggering a massive restructuring. Professional tax collectors began to replace a system of "patronage" appointments. The IRS doubled its staff but was still processing 1917 returns in 1919. Income tax raised much of the money required to finance the war effort; in 1918 a new Revenue Act established a top tax rate of 77%. In 1919
8712-409: The fuck up?" In 1963, Hopper complained in her column that three out of five Best Actor Oscar nominees were British and only two were American: "The weather's so foul on that tight little isle that, to get in out of the rain, they all gather in theatres and practise Hamlet on each other." When Hopper initially came to Hollywood, she and Louella Parsons had had a mutually beneficial arrangement. At
8833-401: The inappropriate enforcement of tax laws against high earners and large corporations , reduced tax collection, rising deficits , lower spending on important priorities, or further tax increases on compliant taxpayers to compensate for lost revenue . Research shows that IRS audits raise revenue, both through the initial audit and indirectly by deterring future tax cheating. According to
8954-447: The industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin , Orson Welles , Alan Lomax , Paul Robeson , and Yip Harburg , left the U.S or went underground to find work. Others like Dalton Trumbo wrote under pseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within
9075-460: The latter part of her career, including brief cameo appearances as herself in the movie Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Patsy (1964), as well as episodes of I Love Lucy , The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford , and The Beverly Hillbillies , starring Buddy Ebsen . Her autobiography , From Under My Hat (Doubleday, 1952) was followed by The Whole Truth and Nothing But (1962), also published by Doubleday. She remained active as
9196-640: The longest term was Doug Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and served for five years. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue is assisted by two deputy commissioners. The Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support reports directly to the Commissioner and oversees the IRS's integrated support functions, working to facilitate economy of scale efficiencies and better business practices. The Deputy also administers and provides executive leadership for customer service, processing, tax law enforcement and financial management operations. Additionally,
9317-528: The news that she might be pregnant was met with some skepticism. Bergman was well known for the angelic role of Sister Benedict in The Bells of St. Mary's . Hopper, who had been a public supporter of Bergman, believed the actress's denial of the pregnancy, and printed a fervent repudiation of the rumor. However, Bergman was indeed pregnant and Hopper, enraged at being scooped, launched a PR campaign decrying Bergman for being pregnant out of wedlock, and carrying
9438-418: The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacting a temporary income tax to pay war expenses. The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed as an emergency and temporary war-time tax. It copied a relatively new British system of income taxation, instead of trade and property taxation. The first income tax was passed in 1862: By the end of the war, 10% of Union households had paid some form of income tax, and
9559-400: The pregnancy, printing a fervent repudiation of the rumor in 1949. However, Bergman was indeed pregnant, and the news was leaked to Hopper's arch-rival Louella Parsons, who gained the scoop. Seeking revenge, Hopper launched a PR campaign decrying Bergman for being pregnant out of wedlock and carrying a married man's child. Hopper had an acting role in a radio soap opera, playing Portia Brent on
9680-409: The press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing the last words of revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale ; Rubin, who was wearing a matching Viet Cong flag, shouted that the police were communists for not arresting him as well. In 1965, Klan violence prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson and Georgia congressman Charles L. Weltner to call for a congressional probe of
9801-452: The public. His tax advisor, Edward L. Morgan, became the fourth law-enforcement official to be charged with a crime during Watergate . John Requard Jr., accused of leaking the Nixon tax returns, collected delinquent taxes in the slums of Washington. In his words: "We went after people for nickels and dimes, many of them poor and in many cases illiterate people who didn't know how to deal with
9922-462: The rear. The next day, he received dozens of flower bouquet deliveries and congratulatory telegrams from others in the industry, thanking him for having the courage to do what everyone else dreamed of doing. Cotten later threatened Hopper that he would kick her again if she kept slandering him. Hopper spread rumors that Michael Wilding and Stewart Granger had a sexual relationship. Her 1962 book The Whole Truth and Nothing But , which she promoted on
10043-652: The reasons for his famous statement: "Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got." So controversial was this leak, that most later US presidents released their tax returns (though sometimes only partially). These returns can be found online at the Tax History Project. By the end of the Second World War, the IRS was handling sixty million tax returns each year, using a combination of mechanical desk calculators, accounting machines , and pencil and paper forms. In 1948 punch card equipment
10164-475: The screenplay for Spartacus (1960), Hopper denounced the film in her column, stating that "[the script is based on] a book written by a Commie and the screen script was written by a Commie, so don't go see it." The film was a critical and financial success. Charlie Chaplin was another target of Hedda Hopper's vitriol because of his alleged Communist sympathies and his relationships with much younger women, which she considered immoral despite her own marriage to
10285-499: The theater. Hearing that Edgar Selwyn was casting his play The Country Boy for a road tour, she went to his office and talked him into letting her audition for the lead. She was given the role and that show toured for thirty-five weeks through forty-eight states. She studied singing during the summer and, in the fall, toured with The Quaker Girl in the second lead, the prima donna role. The show closed in Albany . In 1913, she became
10406-420: The three decades since 1991, the IRS had a substantial decrease in the number of employees per million residents, decreasing from 451 (in 1991) to 237 (in 2021). A decrease of 47.5 percent. From the 1950s through the 1970s, the IRS began using technology such as microfilm to keep and organize records. Access to this information proved controversial, when President Richard Nixon's tax returns were leaked to
10527-415: The time, Hopper was a moderately successful actress, and according to Parson's successor, Dorothy Manners, "if anything happened on a set—if a star and leading man were having an affair—Hedda would give Louella a call.” In return, Hedda was guaranteed a few lines of copy under Louella's increasingly influential byline. After MGM canceled her contract, Hopper struggled to maintain her career as an actress. She
10648-540: The year, Chaplin married 18-year old Oona O'Neill and gave the scoop to Louella Parsons out of dislike for Hopper. For years after the paternity trial, Hopper cooperated with the FBI to destabilize Chaplin's career. This involved her printing damaging information leaked by the FBI concerning Chaplin's past Communist affiliations, while Hopper in turn provided the agency with unsavory gossip about Chaplin's personal life gleaned from her informants. Her sustained criticism of Chaplin
10769-623: Was Robert E. Stripling , senior investigator Louis J. Russell , and investigators Alvin Williams Stokes , Courtney E. Owens , and Donald T. Appell. The director of research was Benjamin Mandel . In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, " The Hollywood Ten " were blacklisted by
10890-471: Was $ 250,000, enabling her to live a luxurious lifestyle and maintain a mansion in Beverly Hills , which she described as "the house that fear built". After Hopper printed a story about an extramarital affair between Joseph Cotten and Deanna Durbin , Cotten ran into Hopper at a social event and pulled out her chair, only to continue pulling it out from under her when she sat down and then kick her in
11011-596: Was a fervent Republican . During the 1944 presidential election , she spoke before a massive rally organized by David O. Selznick in the Los Angeles Coliseum in support of the Dewey - Bricker ticket, as well as Governor Earl Warren of California, who later became Dewey's running mate in 1948, and later the Chief Justice of the United States . The gathering drew 93,000, with Cecil B. DeMille as
11132-639: Was a former Soviet spy, by then a senior editor of Time magazine. Chambers named more than a half dozen government officials including White as well as Alger Hiss (and Hiss' brother Donald). Most of these former officials refused to answer committee questions, citing the Fifth Amendment . White denied the allegations, and died of a heart attack a few days later. Hiss also denied all charges; doubts about his testimony though, especially those expressed by freshman Congressman Richard Nixon , led to further investigation that strongly suggested Hiss had made
11253-588: Was already in uniform serving in the United States Navy, and despised Hopper for her insinuations. Actor Kirk Douglas recounted an interaction between Hopper and Elizabeth Taylor . At the premiere of Taylor and her husband Richard Burton 's film The Sandpiper (1965), Hopper began to complain when she saw screenwriter Dalton Trumbo 's screen credit (she had led the charge in blacklisting Trumbo for his Communist party membership). This caused Taylor to turn around and say "Hedda, why don't you just shut
11374-581: Was being denounced by former President Harry S. Truman as the "most un-American thing in the country today". Women Strike for Peace played a crucial role in bringing down the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In May 1960, the committee held hearings in San Francisco City Hall which led to the infamous riot on May 13, when city police officers fire-hosed protesting students from
11495-591: Was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania , the daughter of Margaret ( née Miller; 1856–1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren . Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona when Elda was three. She eventually ran away to New York City and began her career in the chorus on the Broadway stage. Hopper
11616-711: Was cancelled after four months when she refused to take a $ 15 pay cut. In 1937, Hopper was offered another gossip column opportunity, this time with the Los Angeles Times . Her column, entitled "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood", debuted on February 14, 1938. Hopper could not type, nor spell very well, so she dictated her column to a typist over the phone. Hopper used her extensive contacts forged during her acting days to gather material for her column. Her first major scoop had national implications: in 1939, Hopper printed that President Franklin Roosevelt 's son James Roosevelt
11737-626: Was divorcing his wife Betsey after being caught in an affair with a nurse at the Mayo Clinic . Part of Hopper's public image was her fondness for wearing extravagant hats, for which the Internal Revenue Service allowed her a $ 5,000 annual tax deduction as a work expense. During the Second World War, the Nazis used photographs of Hopper in her extravagant hats for propaganda, as a symbol of "American decadence". Her annual income
11858-478: Was dropped in 2022, however, following privacy concerns from government officials and the public. Alternative ID verification options have since been introduced with the goal of making IRS online tools accessible to more people. As early as the year 1918, the Bureau of Internal Revenue began using the name "Internal Revenue Service" on at least one tax form. In 1953, the name change to the "Internal Revenue Service"
11979-605: Was during this investigation that one of the committee members, Joe Starnes (D-Ala.), famously asked Flanagan whether the English Elizabethan era playwright Christopher Marlowe was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that ancient Greek tragedian " Mr. Euripides " preached class warfare . In 1939, the committee investigated people involved with pro-Nazi organizations such as Oscar C. Pfaus and George Van Horn Moseley . Moseley testified before
12100-544: Was fined $ 1,000. The charges against Marshall Kornegay, Robert Hudgins, and George Dorsett, were later dropped. Hearings in August 1966 called to investigate anti-Vietnam War activities were disrupted by hundreds of protesters, many from the Progressive Labor Party . The committee faced witnesses who were openly defiant. According to The Harvard Crimson : In the fifties, the most effective sanction
12221-604: Was formalized in Treasury Decision 6038. The 1980s saw a reorganization of the IRS. A bipartisan commission was created with several mandates, among them to increase customer service and improve collections. Congress later enacted the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 , which mandated that the agency replace its geographic regional divisions with units that serve particular categories of taxpayers. As
12342-542: Was in The Battle of Hearts (1916) with William Farnum , but she made a major splash in Virtuous Wives (1918), in which she established her pattern of playing society women. Hopper decided to upstage the film's headline starlet, Anita Stewart , by spending all of her $ 5,000 salary on a lavish wardrobe from the upscale boutique Lucile , which she wore in the film. By 1920, she was commanding $ 1,000 per week as
12463-426: Was involved with a Mayo Clinic nurse, from his wife, Betsey . The story became front-page news across the country. When rumors began to surface that Orson Welles ’ debut film Citizen Kane was inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst , Parsons lunched with the director, and believed his evasions and denials. Hopper arrived uninvited to an early screening of the film and wrote a scathing critique, calling it
12584-543: Was known as the House Committee on Internal Security . When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee . The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with McCarthyism , although Joseph McCarthy himself (as a U.S. Senator ) had no direct involvement with the House committee. McCarthy was the chairman of
12705-459: Was known to be a socialist , should win Best Actor . The rumor was untrue, but Hopper joked that she wished she had thought of it. Screenwriter Jay Bernstein related that when he told Hopper that many people in Hollywood privately called her a Nazi because of her extreme conservatism, the gossip columnist began to cry and replied: "Jay, all I've ever tried to be is a good American." Hopper
12826-525: Was not appointed to HUAC to "carry out measures planned by us together with him." Dickstein unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defector Walter Krivitsky , while the Dies Committee kept him in the country. Dickstein stopped receiving NKVD payments in February 1940. On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as
12947-528: Was not ratified until 1913, just before the start of the First World War . That same year, the first edition of the 1040 form was introduced. A copy of the 1913 form can be viewed online and shows that only those with annual incomes of at least $ 3,000 (equivalent to $ 92,500 in 2023) were instructed to file an income tax return. In the first year after the ratification of the 16th Amendment, no taxes were collected. Instead, taxpayers simply completed
13068-600: Was not successful in this venture. Florenz Ziegfeld called the aspiring starlet a "clumsy cow" and brushed off her pleas for a slot in his lavish Follies . After a few years, she joined the theater company of matinee idol DeWolf Hopper , whom she called "Wolfie" and would later marry. She remained in the chorus and they toured the country. While in the Hopper company, she realized that chorus and understudy jobs were not acting. She wanted to act, and she knew she would have to prove herself before she could hope to get anywhere in
13189-493: Was offered a position as a Hollywood columnist by the Esquire Feature Syndicate due to a recommendation by Andy Hervey of MGM ’s publicity department. One of the first papers to pick up “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood” was the Los Angeles Times , a morning paper like Louella's Examiner . Hopper first publicly scooped Parsons with the divorce of the president's son Jimmy Roosevelt (a Goldwyn employee), who
13310-642: Was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Hollywood blacklist , using her 35 million strong readership to destroy the careers of those in the entertainment industry whom she suspected of being a Communist , having Communist sympathies, being homosexual , or leading dissolute lives. She was a leading member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals , founded in 1944 and devoted to rooting out suspected Communists in Hollywood. She considered herself to be
13431-547: Was one of the factors which contributed to his being denied re-entry to the United States in 1952. Actress Ingrid Bergman was also blacklisted as a result of Hedda Hopper's sustained negative coverage in her columns. Hopper had supported Bergman in her column throughout the 1940s, advocating for her to land starring roles in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) and Joan of Arc (1948). She was enraged when Bergman lied to her about being pregnant with married director Roberto Rossellini 's baby. Hopper had believed Bergman's denial of
13552-663: Was originally concerned with investigating pro-German sentiments in the American liquor industry. After World War I ended in November 1918, and the German threat lessened, the subcommittee began investigating Bolshevism, which had appeared as a threat during the First Red Scare after the Russian Revolution in 1917. The subcommittee's hearing into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted February 11 to March 10, 1919, had
13673-535: Was paid $ 1,250 a month by the Soviet NKVD , which hoped to get secret congressional information on anti-communists and pro-fascists. A 1939 NKVD report stated Dickstein handed over "materials on the war budget for 1940, records of conferences of the budget subcommission, reports of the war minister, chief of staff and etc." However the NKVD was dissatisfied with the amount of information provided by Dickstein, after he
13794-465: Was passed in 1942 as the United States entered the Second World War . This act included a special wartime surcharge. The number of American citizens who paid income tax increased from about four million in 1939 to more than forty-two million by 1945. In 1952, after a series of politically damaging incidents of tax evasion and bribery among its own employees, the Bureau of Internal Revenue
13915-506: Was phased out. Information processing in the IRS systems of the late 1960s was in batch mode; microfilm records were updated weekly and distributed to regional centers for handling tax inquiries. A project to implement an interactive, realtime system, the "Tax Administration System", was launched, that would provide thousands of local interactive terminals at IRS offices. However, the General Accounting Office prepared
14036-642: Was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news reports, and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern California ACLU produced a film called Operation Correction , which discussed falsehoods in the first film. Scenes from the hearings and protest were later featured in the Academy Award-nominated 1990 documentary Berkeley in the Sixties . The committee lost considerable prestige as
14157-408: Was reorganized under a plan put forward by President Truman , with the approval of Congress. The reorganization decentralized many functions to new district offices which replaced the collector's offices. Civil service directors were appointed to replace the politically appointed collectors of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Not long after, the bureau was renamed the Internal Revenue Service. In 1954
14278-476: Was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the 'blacklist'. Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without a job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969, a HUAC blacklist could terrorize an SDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends. In an attempt to reinvent itself,
14399-460: Was the only major studio that did not purposefully produce such a film. On July 31, 1948, the committee heard testimony from Elizabeth Bentley , an American who had been working as a Soviet agent in New York . Among those whom she named as communists was Harry Dexter White , a senior U.S. Treasury department official. The committee subpoenaed Whittaker Chambers on August 3, 1948. Chambers, too,
14520-409: Was to get "information on how foreign subversive propaganda entered the U.S. and the organizations that were spreading it." Its records are held by the National Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC. In 1934, the Special Committee subpoenaed most of the leaders of the fascist movement in the United States. Beginning in November 1934, the committee investigated allegations of
14641-480: Was used. The first trial of a computer system for income tax processing was in 1955, when an IBM 650 installed at Kansas City processed 1.1 million returns. The IRS was authorized to proceed with computerization in 1959 and purchased IBM 1401 and IBM 7070 systems for local and regional data processing centers. The Social Security number was used for taxpayer identification starting in 1965. By 1967, all returns were processed by computer and punched card data entry
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