Posted on 01/31/2005 10:38:32 AM PST by byteback
The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, is refusing to cooperate with an IRS investigation into whether its chairman made an improper political speech, charging that the timing of the probe was itself politically motivated.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in October that the group's tax-exempt status was under review after its chairman, Julian Bond, gave a speech that criticized President Bush.
In a letter to the IRS on Thursday, NAACP attorneys said the group will not hand over documents requested in the probe and argued that the IRS followed improper procedure by launching its exam before the group filed its 2004 tax return.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
NAACP should change its name to:
National
Association (of)
Constantly
Complaining
People
It would be more fitting.
Now there's a bright move. This could be vvvvery interesting.
"REFUSES"? Who do they think they are -- the NAACP?
The NAACP's current strategy of antagonizing the IRS has very, very little chance of earning them anything but grief.
"You just wait 'til Jesse gets here. He'll tell it like it is!"
Someone's gonna play the race card. The Man is picking on the NAACP.
CORRECTION to this article: The OLDEST, and BY FAR the LARGEST Civil Righrs organization in the US (and the world) is the NRA - The National Rifle Association, founded 1871, with over 4 million members!
Hang 'em High!
Seems like they are getting a chance to do the right thing (I ain't holdi' muh breathe tho..) and claim the political activity and pay taxes...
In a letter to the IRS dated this past Thursday, the NAACP attorneys said they would not hand over documents the IRS has requested, and countered with charges that the IRS had not followed proper procedure by launching their investigation prior to the filing of the organization's 2004 tax return.
The letter said the tax examiners aimed to influence the group's activities just before the November presidential election.The IRS has indicated that they are looking at 60 different non-profit organizations and churches to determine if they had violated federal rules prohibiting them from political campaign activity."We must conclude that the intention was to chill appropriate voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, whether conducted by the NAACP or by other organizations that are targeted by similar examinations in the program," they wrote.
The NAACP said the IRS challenged as improper campaign intervention a Bond speech this summer because it condemned the president's policies on education, the economy and the war in Iraq.
Bond had made speeches (including a major speech before the NAACP's National Convention last summer) that implied an endorsement of Democratic candidates over the Bush Administration. Bond has also made speeches denouncing the President and the Administration.
I made the statement nearly two years ago on MSNBC that Bond's statements and speeches had opened the door, and that it could potentially be bad for the organization. I'll repeat that here and now -- Bond's foot-in-mouth disease is what brought this on, and may cause the downfall of the entire organization. Unfortunately, if that does happen, I'll look for Bond and the rest of the Soul Patrol to immediately cry racism and try to blame conservatives in general and the Bush Administration in particular for this series of events.
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Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Well now if it was political before, now it's on principle.
It's hard to believe the IRS would back off now.
The ironic aspect is that the NAACP is such a bad manager of money that it is unlikely to make any profits on which to be taxed. The smart play would have been to have forfeited their tax exempt status after Bond's speeches...the consequences would merely have been to have paid taxes on organizational profits (if any).
Now they are risking jail and asset confiscation, along with appearing in public as defiant blowhards.
They chose a decidedly unclever strategy. Perhaps they've grown accustomed to such tactics working in other fields, but that hardly makes such sillyness the thing to bet your organization on...against the IRS.
Now if the IRS would just go after Je$$e Jack$on's Rainbow/Push and the NEA...
There would be another, very serious consequence. The NAACP, like many other so-called "charities," is an active political organization, although it is a 501(c)(3) organization. 501(c)(3) organizations are generally prohibited from supporting or opposing political candidates (an absolute prohibition) and are more generally prohibited from lobbying, subject to a group of complex conditions and formulas. A 501(c)(3) organization gains a tremendous double benefit from that status: 1) the people and organizations that contribute to 501(c)(3) entities are allowed to deduct those contributions from their taxable income and 2) a 501(c)(3) doesn't have to pay taxes on any "profits" it makes from activities related to its charitable purpose.
Thus, although the NAACP might not have any "profits" to be taxed even if it were a for profit organization, it would still be terribly injured by losing its 501(C)(3) status, since its contributors could be subject to taxes on contributions they had already made and deducted and on future contributions. Most of the major corporations in the U.S. presently contribute tribute to the NAACP and deduct it and are able to appoint members to the NAACP board. If this IRS injury goes forward, it will have a huge impact on the NAACP's contributors who, in turn, put might apply serious pressure on the NAACP to moderate its Marxist positions.
A successful IRS challenge to the NAACP will also be a powerful warning to the numerous other left wing 501(c)(3) organizations that are and have been abusing their tax exempt status and induce them to moderate their positions.
Nice point about NAACP donors caring about their tax exempt status.
Thanks for that additional wisdom.
Jesse Jackson and his sons' organizations should be investigated fully.
His shake-down operations are as corrupt as corrupt can be.
I have friends, black ministers in Chicago, who have been working for four years to try and draw attention to this.
They even picket the PUSH HQ regularly. In fact, they just did it again about 3 hours ago.
The Jackson political operations here are a hollow shell. Their meetings are sparsely attended.
Our people, conservatives, are working to fill that vacuum.
They need to be taken down from the top down, and replaced from the bottom up.
NAACP is untouchable and they know it. GOP and RINOs are whimps and wouldnt do a damn thing to them. Lawbreaking is legal as long as your part of a minority group - can you say illegal immigration.
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