IRS Sent Same Letter to Democrats That Fed Tea Party Row

[DiscoBerry]

Someone is trying to paint themselves with the brush of victimhood. 

One of those groups, Emerge America, saw its tax-exempt status denied, forcing it to disclose its donors and pay some taxes. None of the Republican groups have said their applications were rejected.

Progress Texas, another of the organizations, faced the same lines of questioning as the Tea Party groups from the same IRS office that issued letters to the Republican-friendly applicants. A third group, Clean Elections Texas, which supports public funding of campaigns, also received IRS inquiries.

In a statement late yesterday, the tax agency said it had pooled together the politically active nonpartisan applicants -- including a “minority” that were identified because of their names. “It is also important to understand that the group of centralized cases included organizations of all political views,” the IRS said in its statement.

SCOTUS opened the door, and there are NO clear regulations on how to deal with this. 

Political spending by nonprofits incorporated under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code has increased since the U.S. Supreme Court (1000L) in 2010 removed limits on independent corporate and union spending and other court rulings paved the way for wealthy individuals to spend unlimited sums in elections.

$1 Billion

Outside groups -- including nonprofit social-welfare groups that don’t disclose their donors -- spent $1 billion in the 2012 elections, three times as much as they did four years earlier, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington.

I really don't want to sound like a conspiratard, but these groups know they cannot pass muster and are shaming their way into non-profit status. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-05-15/irs-sent-same-letter-to-democrats-that-fed-tea-party-row.html

[mellenORL]

This current tempest is all very much brewing in a fucking Teapot. That Obama rushed to apologize about it to the whinehards, reminds me of that Breitbart scandal, when the Sec'y of Agriculture rushed to fire an innocent Dept. employee before realizing Breitbart had used her video clip out of context to stir up trouble and slander her.

I worked for a 501 (c) 4 citizen lobbying group back in the '90's. Donations to us were Not tax deductible, and we paid business income tax if we netted anything (usually not - was run as a non profit) because we lobbied politicians. It was an environmentalist group, rather banal and non-controversial....fighting toxic waste site building proposals and suing shitty law breaking landfill owners,and we got curbside recycling enacted in hundreds of towns and counties throughout Georgia. We were periodically reviewed or queried by both IRS and Georgia Dept of Revenue.

Since this particular IRS inquiry is new in format, I wonder if it is more than just consequent to the new allowances on donations, as stated in the article, but also because of the anti terror group/anti hate group funding laws. If your organization has those key words, which are coincidentally also used by known domestic terror, militia, and/or hate groups, yeah you're gonna get looked at.

[DiscoBerry]

I posted something similar to a friend on Facebook.  What Brietbart controversy are you speaking of, I am very curious to know?

[mellenORL]

http://www.wltx.com/news/national/article/122766/142/Sherrod-Fired-Agriculture-Employee-Sues

Was huge in the news a couple years ago. Nice lady got bulldozed by bullshit, basically.