Politico reports. UPDATE: The article links to the tax returns themselves. … Continue reading
Category Archives: tax law and election law
Bloomberg BNA: “Crossroads GPS, a Republican-leaning group organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, reported to the Internal Revenue Service that it spent less than a quarter of its budget in 2010 and 2011 for ‘political campaign and lobbying … Continue reading
I’m no tax lawyer, but on its face this looks like a reasonable point. A c3 cannot engage in substantial lobbying and legislation is necessary to achieve its ends. What am I missing? (And I concede I may be missing … Continue reading
Greg Colvin: It is very difficult to create rules that accurately trace political spending back to original sources in a multi-purpose organization. How far back do you go? Do you count the dollars first-in first-out or last-in first-out? Do you … Continue reading
Alex Engler has written this article for the Georgetown Public Policy Review. … Continue reading
Stanford Social Innovation Review: On March 20, two-dozen scholars, practitioners, and policymakers met for a discussion around the theme “Are Nonprofits People, Too? Citizens United and the Future of the Social Sector.” Responding to the expanded roles that certain nonprofit … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: “The House’s rejection March 27 of a proposal requiring greater disclosure for campaign advertising was just the latest litmus test of Republican and Democratic attitudes toward the issue, with general elections mere months away. Following an afternoon of … Continue reading
Interesting post at NPQ. … Continue reading
Dan Froomkin on the Kochs. … Continue reading
Roll Call reports. … Continue reading
See here. … Continue reading
Lucy Bernholz, who co-organized with Rob Reich today’s fabulous event at Stanford on nonprofits after Citizens United, has written this post at her Philanthropy 2173 blog. … Continue reading
Must-read Eliza column: In an election that until lately has been dominated by super PACs, politically active nonprofits are the new bad guys, drawing ethics complaints, letters to the IRS and legislative action. That is bad news for the nation’s … Continue reading
Tomorrow I will be up at Stanford, attending and making a brief presentation at this meeting, Are Nonprofits People Too?. Here are my slides on “Citizens United, Campaign Finance, and Non-Profits. (Data are reprinted with permission of the Center for … Continue reading
Justin Elliott reports for ProPublica: Crossroads GPS and Priorities USA did not respond to requests for comment about the proportion of their work that they classify as political. The proportion matters because if corporations are, in fact, deducting donations as … Continue reading
This item appears at Tax Prof Blog. … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: “Twelve Republican senators March 14 questioned the extent of the questions the Internal Revenue Service has been asking of some civic organizations applying for tax-exempt status.” The Democratic Senators’ letter to the IRS on c4s is here. The … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA reports. … Continue reading
Stanford Social Innovation Review: There is a great deal of discussion about what the Citizens United decision means for elections, campaign finance, and democracy. But what does it mean for the nonprofit sector? This will be the topic of our … Continue reading
Newsweek and iWatch report. … Continue reading
Check out the fourth slide in this chilling presentation from the Center for Responsive Politics: Effects of the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission View more PowerPoint from s_maccoll Actually, check out the whole thing. … Continue reading
See this press release. … Continue reading
Important report from Dan Froomkin. And it may answer Eric Brown’s question (based on a Politico article): Where’s the corporate money? … Continue reading
NYT’s “The Caucus” reports. … Continue reading
Must read. … Continue reading
Important Roll Call follow up to NYT story. See also this NYT editorial. … Continue reading
Paul Blumenthal writes for HuffPo. … Continue reading
Big deal: “The Internal Revenue Service is caught in an election-year struggle between Democratic lawmakers pressing for a crackdown on nonprofit political groups and conservative organizations accusing the tax agency of conducting a politically charged witch hunt. In recent weeks, … Continue reading
Choose your poison: big money or big(ger?) dark money? … Continue reading
Important Michael Hiltzik column in the LA Times. … Continue reading
PR Watch has this post. … Continue reading
Misleading headline at the Washington Wire. This is about gifts to 501c4s, not PACs. And the concern now is not just transfers from c4’s to PACs, but c4 spending itself. … Continue reading
Interesting follow-up to this story. … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
Steven Sholk’s publication, updated. … Continue reading
See this LA Times editorial. … Continue reading
iWatch News reports. … Continue reading
BNA: “Whether some exempt organizations’ political activities are more than their primary activity is the determinant of whether tax code Section 501(c)(4), (c)(5), or (c)(6) organizations have appropriately delved into political campaigns, Judith Kindell, senior technical adviser to the Internal … Continue reading
This NY Times article begins: “This weekend, hundreds of pastors, including some of the nation’s evangelical leaders, will climb into their pulpits to preach about American politics, flouting a decades-old law that prohibits tax-exempt churches and other charities from campaigning … Continue reading
iWatch News reports. … Continue reading
Press release: “Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center sent a letter today to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) challenging the eligibility of four organizations engaged in campaign activity to be treated as 501(c)(4) tax exempt organizations. Democracy 21 took … Continue reading
An extensive must-read report (unfortunately behind a paywall) from BNA. … Continue reading
Ellen Aprill has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Case Western Reserve Law Review). Here is the abstract: Organizations tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, often referred to as charities, cannot, at risk of loss of exemption, … Continue reading
Ellen Aprill has posted this draft on SSRN (New York University Journal of Law and Public Policy). Here is the abstract: The applicability of the gift tax for transfers to section 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, entities that are permitted to … Continue reading
The Houston Chronicle “Believe It or Not” blog reports. … Continue reading
Cory Kalanick has written this student note for the Minnesota Law Review. Here is the abstract: In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, nonprofit organizations originally designed to promote social welfare interests have become the latest … Continue reading
Froomkin reports. … Continue reading
The NY Times reports. … Continue reading
Politico has this report on Fox Business’ investigation, alleging that Media Matters has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy by engaging in partisan activity through its criticism of News Corp. … Continue reading
In this post, I mentioned a prescient letter to the IRS from Greg Colvin and Rosemary Fei, asking for clarification on a host of (c)(4) issues. From the intro, written August 30, 2002: “Considering that a number of existing and … Continue reading