File photo of US President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
US President Barack Obama has criticized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for targeting political groups during the 2012 election campaign.\n<\/p>\n
The IRS must be held \u00c5\u201cfully accountable\u201d for singling out tax-exempt groups, Obama said on Monday, while warning \u00c5\u201cI\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ve got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it and I will make sure that we find out exactly what happened.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
This came as the tax agency admitted to intentionally seeking out groups with the words \u00c5\u201cTea Party\u201d and \u00c5\u201cpatriot\u201d in their names – customarily used by conservative groups.\n<\/p>\n
The US president said the IRS must apply the law in a non-partisan fashion in order to appeal to US taxpayer confidence.\n<\/p>\n
The US House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a hearing for Friday to investigate the matter.\n<\/p>\n
A considerable amount of political groups filed for tax-exempt status with the IRS between 2010 – 2012, ahead of the presidential election.\n<\/p>\n
GMA\/PR<\/p>\n<\/div>\n