IRS to Audit Obama's 2013 Tax Filing

(MFNS) - WASHINGTON - The head of the Internal Revenue Service accused President Obama of engaging in "creative accounting" Wednesday as he announced his agency was launching a full-scale audit of the president's finances after Mr. Obama filed his 2013 tax return. In an interview on CNN's The Situation Room, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said the return raised some immediate red flags.  

"When we received a tax return claiming 300 million dependents, we thought it a bit high," said Mr. Koskinen, an Obama appointee. "So an auditor at the D.C. office passed it along to his supervisor, who kicked it up to his boss, who then alerted the IRS headquarters. From there, a team of qualified auditors looked over the return, handed it off to their immediate superior, who then notified the IRS Audit Czar, who then, finally, sent a memo to myself suggesting that this return might warrant further investigation. I'll reserver all judgment until looking closer at the filing.

While Commissioner Koskinen promises the audit will thoroughly investigate whether the president has standing to declare all Americans as dependent on him, Mr. Obama's critics wasted no time crying foul.

"It's ludicrous and insulting to classify all Americans as dependent on government," said congressman and former Romney running mate Paul Ryan (R-WI). "That number is much closer to 47 percent. President Obama simply got greedy."

The president appeared briefly at Thursday's White House press briefing to push back against his critics and to downplay the audit as a "minor inconvenience."

"Look, I wasn't trying to be cute or anything. I was just hoping for a tax break this year," explained Mr. Obama. "That's understandable to folks, right?"

Other items of interest in President Obama's 2013 tax return include lavish deductions for numerous vacation expenses, profit from the sale of a Taco Bell franchise in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood,   as well as gambling losses totaling in excess of $200,000.  

"There is also the legality of income reported is a silent partner in a Chicago nightclub called 'Chaps'."