by Divinity11 » Sun Jun 22, 2014 6:11 am
I still don't see what the big deal was. So the IRS targeted certain groups looking to file tax-exempt status. Good! They were doing their f**k jobs!
"The most common type of tax-exempt nonprofit organization falls under category 501(c)(3), whereby a nonprofit organization is exempt from federal income tax if its activities have the following purposes: charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering amateur sports competition, or preventing cruelty to children or animals. The 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) categories are for politically active nonprofit organizations, which have become increasingly important since the 2004 federal elections."
"United States federal tax law, specifically Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)), exempts certain types of nonprofit organizations from having to pay federal income tax. The statutory language of IRC 501(c)(4) generally requires civic organizations described in that section to be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare". Treasury regulations interpreting this statutory language apply a more relaxed standard, namely, that the organization "is operated primarily for the purpose of bringing about civic betterments and social improvements". As a result, the IRS traditionally has permitted organizations described in IRC 501(c)(4) to engage in lobbying and political campaign activities if those activities are not the organization's primary activity."
I love the irony in that paragraph. "Social Welfare." Two things Tea Partiers are against.
"On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which overturned many previous restrictions on political campaign spending and allowed nearly unlimited and often anonymous spending by corporations and other groups to influence elections. Some Tea Party leaders began forming political action committees as offshoots of their 501(c)-tax-exempt organizations. By late September 2010, tax-exempt non-profit groups had spent in excess of $100 million on the mid-term elections, more than double the expenditure from a similar point in the election cycle four years earlier.[27]
Public-interest advocacy groups such as Public Citizen and Democracy 21 complained that the IRS and Federal Election Commission were failing to provide adequate oversight for 501(c) nonprofit organizations that were pouring money into political campaigns. As The New York Times reported at the time:
Almost all of the biggest players among third-party groups, in terms of buying television time in House and Senate races since August, have been 501(c) organizations, and their purchases have heavily favored Republicans....
They include 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations, like Crossroads, which has been the top spender on Senate races, and Americans for Prosperity, another pro-Republican group that has been the leader on the House side; 501(c)(5) labor unions, which have been supporting Democrats; and 501(c)(6) trade associations, like the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has been spending heavily in support of Republicans."
So essentially, the IRS outlawed any kind of PAC for pro or nay federal candidates, then the Supreme Court says groups can raise money, it gets way out of hand, and one group specifically starts using unlimited tax-exempt money via unnamed donors to advertise for or against a federal candidate (which was never allowed). The majority of these applications were coming from the Tea Party, so the IRS gave them extra scrutiny.
THIS IS A GOOD THING! One of the biggest f**k problems in our electoral process is MONEY. It takes around 1 BILLION dollars to run for president. Read that again. Our founding fathers are rolling in their graves at what our government has become.
I swear to God, if I were Lois Lerner I would get up on that stand and, in Jack Nicholson-style, yell, "You're Goddamn right I ordered the Code Red!!!!!!!!"
Thankless, and proooouuuud of it!