Free Republic

COMMENTARY The slow-motion collapse of St. Michael’s Media (a 501(c)3), Church Militant (a 501(c)4) and the quasi-entity known as the Deposit of Faith Coalition is a case study: first, in the kissing cousin dangers between 501(c)3s and 501(c)4s; and second, the risk organizations run when they affiliate, even loosely, with nonprofits run by individuals who are deliberately ignorant of their legal responsibilities. Viva la Différence! Most people are completely unaware of the distinction between various non-profit entities. Donations to some are tax deductible, others are not. Some have to file IRS Form 990 which discloses information about the organization, others...

Gov. Chris Sununu has launched a fundraising vehicle to solicit unlimited contributions from national donors, a key step as he pursues a potential presidential candidacy in 2024. Sununu first confirmed to NBC News Wednesday that he had formed the "Live Free or Die" committee, a 501(c)(4) organization that permits politicians to raise unlimited money without disclosing the donations. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, who are also eyeing presidential runs, have already formed similar committees. Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, is expected to formalize her run for president next week. [cut] “I’m...

EXCLUSIVE: Tampa, Fla.– Former President Donald Trump dominated the 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit Sunday, Fox News has learned. TPUSA polled conference attendees—youth activists from around the country—who they would vote for in 2024 if Trump decided to launch another White House run. The straw poll was sponsored by Turning Point Action, the affiliated 501(c)(4) of TPUSA. 78.7% attendees said they would vote for Trump. 19% said they would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 1% said they’d vote for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, 0.5% said they’d vote for former...

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows censored news on a White House-backed "dark money" group being formed to help sell President Joe Biden’s leftist agenda to the American people. A Wall Street Journal exclusive revealed that Biden’s allies were “preparing to create a new nonprofit advocacy organization, with the White House’s approval, that will be funded by donors and seek to build support for his policy agenda, senior administration officials said.” The Feb. 17 report noted that the new group, named “Building Back Together,” will “be a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which would allow it to operate without disclosing its...

Leaked funding documents reveal an effort by George Soros and his foundations to manipulate election laws and process rules ahead of the federal election far more expansively than has been previously reported. The billionaire and convicted felon moved hundreds of millions of dollars into often-secret efforts to change election laws, fuel litigation to attack election integrity measures, push public narratives about voter fraud, and to integrate the political ground game of the left with efforts to scare racial minority groups about voting rights threats. These Soros-funded efforts moved through dozens of 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) charities and involved the active compliance with civil rights groups, government...

September 24, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A former member of Congress is calling on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to audit several left-wing activist groups over their charity arms’ association with a progressive organization he claims is “weaponizing” charitable giving for political purposes. This week, former rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) spoke to Bill Bennett, former education secretary and Fox Nation host, about concerns he detailed earlier this month in a Fox News op-ed about Grassroots Campaigns, a for-profit “progressive” voter canvassing organization that has worked with Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)....

Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., represents arguably the most gerrymandered congressional district in the country, and he wants to keep it that way. His latest piece of legislation, H.R. 1 “For the People Act,” would force taxpayers to fund congressional campaigns. Congress has a knack for naming legislation after its opposite intended effect. If you’ve spent more than a weekend in Washington, you know that a bill named “For the People” is likely a far cry from actually benefiting the public. The “Incumbent Protection Act” would be a more fitting name for this piece of legislation. Forcing citizens to fund political...

The GoFundMe campaign that generated $20 million in private donations is being shutdown and those who donated are being refunded their money unless they decide to donate it to a newly-established 501(c)4. Brian Kolfage, the veteran who started the campaign, on Friday posted the following message on the campaign's website: Eight days before Christmas I started this GoFundMe campaign because I was tired of watching the U.S. government’s inability to secure our southern border. Like most Americans, I see the porous southern border as a national security threat and I refuse to allow our broken political system to leave my family...

Hillary Clinton — the same Hillary Clinton who spent her campaign months talking up the dangers of “dark money” in politics — was just outed for moving about $800,000 of the cash stashed for her presidential run to ANTIFA groups. Pardon, Ms. Clinton, the bluntness of the question. But isn’t that “dark money?” Apparently, Clinton’s been busy using her “Onward Together” Super-PAC dough to back resistance movements around the United States. The Gateway Pundit has more: In building investigations, Daily Caller first discovered that Hillary transferred a mass sum of money from her campaign over to Onward Together: Clinton transferred...

Tea party activists are heartened by a federal appeals court ruling that strengthens their legal push against the Internal Revenue Service for alleged targeting in past election cycles. A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chastised government foot-dragging while ordering the agency to give attorneys for tea party groups details on tax-exempt applicants. A U.S. district court judge in Cincinnati earlier this year certified the case as a class action. …

The IRS has agreed to overhaul a controversial proposal that Republican lawmakers warned would revive the agency’s “harassment and intimidation” of conservative groups, after receiving a record number of comments on the proposed regulation. […] At issue were new rules that would prohibit so-called 501(c)(4) groups from counting “candidate-related political activity” and other political work as activities that qualify them to be tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations. Critics of the proposal warned that this would effectively force many grassroots organizations to shut down. …

The Obama administration’s Treasury Department and former IRS official Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means. The Treasury Department and Lerner started devising the new rules “off-plan,” meaning that their plans would not be published on the public schedule. They planned the new rules in 2012, while the IRS targeting of conservative groups was in full swing, and not after the scandal broke in order to clarify regulations as the administration has suggested. The...

We all know the government agency we love to hate. The IRS is the most feared and hated government agency Washington, D.C has managed to come up with. That fear and hatred was never more evidenced than when it was discovered that the IRS had been intentionally targeting conservative organizations when they asked to be granted 501(c)(4) status. Congressional hearings were held to find out exactly what was going on and the woman in charge of the uncalled for scrutiny managed to wiggle her way out of the hot seat. Lois Lerner pleaded the 5th Amendment, after stating she had...

The Obama administration on Tuesday moved to issue new rules that would curtail political activity by tax-exempt nonprofit groups, with potentially significant ramifications for one of the fastest-growing sources of campaign spending. The proposed rules, announced by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, would expand and clarify how the I.R.S. defines political activity and then establish clearer limits for how much activity nonprofits can engage in. Such a change — long urged by government watchdog groups — would be the first wholesale shift in a generation in the regulations governing political activity. The move to curtail nonprofits follows...

Sucker=xx=xx Bad news: After Republicans spent $400,000 in sickening ads to hijack John Kerry's old Senate seat, a terrifying new GOP poll shows an incredibly close race: Markey (D) 45, Gomez (R) 44% And the election is in JUST TWO WEEKS away I know you're a top President Obama supporter, so you need to know that the next 36 hours are critically important for the President. If we lose this seat, Mitch McConnell will be a step closer to: -blocking every single sensible gun law -completely repealing Obamacare -tearing apart Social Security and Medicare President Obama needs you to finish...

Back in 2011, I posted the following article on FRee Republic. I think it's more relevant now, especially since Chairman Obama has decided to use the IRS as his own personal Gestapo. To shamelessly rip off Greg Gutfeld and not feel the least bit bad about it, enjoy enjoyers! *** While spewing venom at the Communist Left at Moveon.Dork, I noticed something rather odd at the bottom of the propaganda-filled screen: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "MoveOn.org Civic Action is a 501(c)(4) organization which primarily focuses on nonpartisan education and advocacy on important national issues. MoveOn.org Political Action is a federal political committee which...

Calling the tax-exempt status of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) a “charade,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said it should not qualify for 501(c)(4) status with the Internal Revenue Service, because it is not a social welfare group but political in nature. “It’s everybody’s right to participate in politics, and well you should,” Blumenauer said on Tuesday at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing into allegations that the IRS targeted conservative organizations, including NOM. “But I think having organizations parading as being social welfare organizations and then being involved in political combat harkens back to why the [IRS 501(c)(4)]...

Though the White House has insisted the IRS stopped formally targeting Tea Party and conservative organizations in May of 2012, two attorneys representing conservative organizations have claimed the IRS's targeting may still be ongoing. Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and Cleta Mitchell, the attorney representing True the Vote, have evidence their clients are still being targeted. According to National Review, Sekulow "plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued...

This IRS politicization is not an isolated problem. It is an inevitable result of the broader efforts to regulate and, in fact, suppress political speech. The IRS crackdown on tax-exemption approvals for conservative groups was directed at nonprofit social-welfare groups, often called 501(c)(4)s after the Internal Revenue Code section granting them tax-exempt status. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors and are exempt from most taxation, although donations to them generally aren't tax deductible. Social-welfare organizations are permitted to engage in a range of political activities promoting their causes or beliefs, so long as these activities aren't their...

For former IRS staff and tax experts, the case confirms what they view as one of the agency's long-standing weaknesses: its inability to cope with the growing number of tax-exempt advocacy groups that appear to stretch the law to engage in politics. With the IRS now under fire for its practices, campaign finance lawyers anticipate that the agency will shy away even more from regulating such organizations. At the heart of the issue is the murky role occupied by nonprofit "social welfare" organizations, set up under Section 501(c)4 of the tax code, which are allowed under IRS regulations to engage...