Fox News Poll: 70 percent want Congress to keep probing IRS

April 13, 2014: This file photo shows the headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington. (AP)

Most American voters want Congress to keep investigating the IRS targeting of conservative political groups, according to the latest Fox News poll.

Seventy percent say the IRS investigation should last until “someone is held accountable.”  That’s down from a high of 78 percent in June 2013.  About one in five thinks it is time to move on (22 percent).

Click here for the poll results. 

Call it a “kumbaya” question, as majorities of Democrats (60 percent), independents (75 percent) and Republicans (78 percent) support lawmakers continuing to dig.

The new poll also asked why the White House is refusing to release thousands of pages of documents related to the IRS targeting.  By nearly three-to-one people think it’s because the administration wants to keep its role in the scandal secret (63 percent) rather than to keep taxpayer information confidential (22 percent).

Even Democrats are more likely to say the Obama White House is withholding documents to hide its involvement (45 percent) rather than to protect taxpayers (35 percent).  Another 20 percent is unsure.

Many of the tax-exempt groups the IRS targeted for special scrutiny have “tea party” in their name.  For those who consider themselves part of that movement, 87 percent want the congressional investigation to continue, and another 91 percent feel the Obama administration is covering up its role by withholding documents.

The IRS recently reinstated their bonus plan.  You can probably guess how American voters feel about giving bonuses to IRS staff when they do a good job collecting taxes: 70 percent disapprove. That includes 63 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Tea Party.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,043 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 7-9, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.