Posted on 04/05/2005 9:39:29 AM PDT by Liz
Charities and other nonprofits exempted from taxes because they serve a public purpose have become a hotbed of tax evasion and abuse, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service.
"We can see that tax abuse is increasingly present in the sector," and unless the government takes effective steps to curb it, such organizations risk "the loss of the faith and support that the public has always given to this sector," Internal Revenue Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee detailing abuses his agency has found.
Everson said that the IRS is finding problems in virtually every type of tax-exempt organization. Nonprofits include not only charities, but colleges and universities, many hospitals, pension plans, trade associations and think tanks. In fact, eight of the 10 largest private employers in the District are nonprofits.
"Unfortunately, we have no precise way to gauge the revenue impact of these issues," Everson said, though he noted that the nonprofit sector, including pension plans and the like, now totals roughly 3 million entities controlling $8 trillion in assets.
Feds probe abuse "It's a seminal letter that rips off the rose-colored glasses with which we usually look at tax-exempt organizations," Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said yesterday. "What's going on isn't a pretty picture in the harsh light."
The Finance Committee began examining the nonprofit sector last summer, finding, among other things, that localities and transit systems were collecting fees for allowing corporations to benefit from tax shelters designed to help finance public works. Several provisions of last fall's tax bill were aimed at abuses uncovered by the panel, but members have suspected, and Everson's letter confirms, that many more exist. Another hearing will begin today.
The findings have already sent alarms through the nonprofit community.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Chuck Grassley's been feeding at the government teet for too many years. He killed the car donation to charity program last year. Now he wants to find more ways to take your money. This guy needs to be put out to pasture.
I have been told that Grassley has been made aware of the issues and is hell-bent on getting something in the law - good, bad, or indifferent. Like so often happens in Congress, the hype of an issue makes simplistic solutions attractive, because they do not require as much technical understanding as the actual circumstances may warrant. You wind up creating more problems than what existed before the new law was made, but you go to the next election claiming a legislative victory, before the extent of the problems you created have become apparent. You could chalk up 3/4 of the IRS code to problems like what Grassley would allow to be created, and the years of additional, convoluted, legislation trying to undo them.
What is needed at this time is not a rush to new regulations, but more extensive economic, legal and tax analysis to understand the best way to employ regulatory changes that will achieve a good intent without destroying more good than what that intent represents.
Someone is looking too much at 2006 and not the public good.
I can only hope that enough House members will take a longer, more thoughtful look and kill any new regulation of non-profits until the issue has more facts to work with.
Yup. Charity frauds, cash businesses, illegals paid under the table, dealers in contraband all get an extra 30-40% reward for being outlaws as things stand.
Under an NRST, all would pay, and only based on what they consume. It would make obeying the law much easier, and being a criminal 30-40% less attractive.
"And it really chaps my ass that we can't force them to turn it over to the nanny state. It's for the chilrun."
ping!
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) - http://www.alliancedefensefund.org
Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) - http://www.thomasmore.org
American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) - http://www.aclj.org
The Rutherford Institute - http://www.rutherford.org/
Stop the ACLU Coalition (GREATLY ORGANIZED ACTIVIST SITE..PLEASE JOIN) - http://www.stoptheaclu.org
Here are a few examples of how two of those organizations are fighting back:
ADF Contacts Over 3,600 School Districts Over Attempts To Censor Christmas
ADF: 700 lawyers ready to fight ACLU lawsuits
ADF: Pentagons' Warning About Boyscouts Is Absurd
Thomas More Law Center: Town of Palm Beach Pays $50,000 In Attorney Fees Apologizes To Women In Nativity Lawsuit
Additional information:
The ACLU must be destroyed: Joseph Farah supports Boy Scouts, urges Americans to fight back
Citizens mobilized to stop ACLU (seeks to consign group to 'ash heap of history')
ACLU fulfilling communist agenda
Revealing FACTS on the ACLU from its own writings
See how YOUR Senator or Representative ranks with the ACLU
This yahoo group just started on December 3, 2004 and is looking for new members
The Center For Reclaiming America (petitions to congress)
American Family Assn. Center for Law and Policy
"I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produced the wealth: communism is the goal." - Roger Baldwin, ACLU founder, Harvard Reunion Book, 1935
"The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body to forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on." - William Z. Foster, ACLU co-founder and former chairman, Communist Party USA.
Let me know if you would like to join my ACLU ping list
Lookit, the point is this: until the system changes, if we have to pay, they have to pay.
Calling George Soros......
PING -- FYI to what we were talking about yesterday re the veteransforpeace.org phony nonprofit.
Thanks - I'll check it out.
Bump.
Floyd D. Loop, the head of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a "non-profit" charity, was paid $1.6-million ofr the year 2000.
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