Category Archives: tax law and election law

Into the Weeds of the IRS Screening of Nonprofits

October 6, 2017, 3:45 pmtax law and election lawJustin Levitt

Barnaby Zall here, with more details on the latest TIGTA report on IRS nonprofit screening. If you don’t know the difference between BOLOs and TAGs from the world of IRS enforcement in the area of tax-exempt entities, and… Continue reading

IRS Audit Report on Criteria to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review

October 5, 2017, 7:18 pmtax law and election lawJustin Levitt

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has another audit report released today, on the IRS screening of nonprofits for further scrutiny based on their names or perceived policies. (TIGTA also emphasizes that that IRS policy is no longer in… Continue reading

“The House Appropriations Committee and the Johnson Amendment”

October 2, 2017, 7:17 amtax law and election lawRick Hasen

Ed Zelinsky: The best solution is not the kind of procedural band-aid proposed by the Appropriations Committee. Congress should instead modify the Johnson Amendment to protect internal church communications from all IRS scrutiny. With churches’ rights of free expression thus… Continue reading

“Slashing corporate taxes opens floodgate on ‘dark money’ ads”

September 29, 2017, 11:59 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Ezra Reese oped: Political organizations very rarely withhold donors currently because the 35 percent tax is simply too high. A cut in that rate to 20 percent, however, would lead a number of political organizations and their donors to… Continue reading

Trump DOJ, After Reopening Lois Lerner IRS Investigation, Concludes No Criminal Charges Warranted

September 8, 2017, 1:33 pmtax law and election lawRick Hasen

The letter is here. Some GOP lawmakers angry. Given the political heat over this, it is a good sign that at least this part of the DOJ was not subject to or able to resist political pressures to… Continue reading

“Citizens United Fights to Keep Donor Names Secret”

August 23, 2017, 7:01 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

NYLJ: The conservative nonprofit that successfully fought in the U.S. Supreme Court for unlimited donations to federal campaigns wants to keep its list of donors secret. But in oral arguments on Monday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of… Continue reading

“Investor Reaction to Covert Corporate Political Activity”

August 9, 2017, 7:38 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Timothy Werner has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming Strategic Management Journal). Here is the abstract: Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission and subsequent developments created a covert channel for firms to allocate resources from corporate treasuries to political activity.… Continue reading

“Watchdogs Say Cuomo Is Skirting Campaign Finance Rules”

July 26, 2017, 11:40 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

NYT: At the end of a video promoting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s immigration policies, a disclaimer noted the advertisement’s funding source: an obscure anti-discrimination group called New Yorkers United Together. The fledgling group, which has financed only the one online… Continue reading

“Georgians kept in the dark about many ad sponsors”

June 29, 2017, 8:49 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Issue One: This year, residents of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District were bombarded with a seemingly never-ending cascade of political advertisements. But figuring out who was really behind this $60 million spending spree is nothing short of a Herculean task. Our… Continue reading

“Dark Money Turns Elections Into Trench Warfare”

June 21, 2017, 4:16 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy at Bill Moyers.

MO: “Questions mount on list of charity donors at center of Greitens ethics fine”

June 13, 2017, 5:32 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

KC Star: Greitens, a first-term Republican, agreed to pay a $1,000 fine in late April for failing to disclose that his campaign had obtained a list of donors to The Mission Continues, a charity he founded in 2007. But… Continue reading

“How a ‘shadow’ universe of charities joined with political warriors to fuel Trump’s rise”

June 4, 2017, 3:17 pmcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Must-read WaPo: Long before Trump promised to build a wall, ban Muslims and abandon the Paris climate accord, Horowitz used his tax-exempt group to rail against illegal immigrants, the spread of Islam and global warming. Center officials described Hillary Clinton… Continue reading

“Nearly Half of Recent Campaign Money From Undisclosed Sources”

May 17, 2017, 6:47 pmcampaign finance, campaigns, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Bloomberg BNA: Undisclosed donors provided nearly half of the more than $20 million in outside campaign spending in three closely watched, current congressional election races, a Bloomberg BNA review of Federal Election Commission reports found. Bloomberg BNA looked at FEC… Continue reading

“New CCP Issue Brief: ‘Dark Money’ Drops to 2.9% of Campaign Spending in 2016”

May 17, 2017, 7:48 amcampaign finance, tax law and election lawRick Hasen

Release: The Center for Competitive Politics, America’s largest nonprofit defending First Amendment political free speech rights, released a new Issue Brief today analyzing the amount of so-called “dark money,” or election campaign spending by nonprofits that are not required to… Continue reading