(Community Matters) Whomever limited additional scrutiny for charitable applications to Tea Party & Patriot made a mistake, but not because they decided applications from politically driven organizations merited the scrutiny. The screens should have been (& as far as we know could have been) broader. Any organization with primarily political ambitions applying for charitable status should be closely evaluated, rigorously screened. In case most don’t know, many applications (most with which I’ve been engaged) have been, whether or not politically oriented. And, I am engaged with two charities (one national, one statewide) which have political entities; their 501(c)(3) arms are segregated and activities separately overseen.
community matters
It's about community, entrepreneurs, politics, art . . and sometimes just silly fun . . . a slightly gay blog.Eugene Sepulveda
Love big West Texas skies, the unimpeded horizons of the coasts, Austin and my husband, the Rev. Dr. Steven Robert Tomlinson, with whom I’ve spent the last 24 years – nineteen years since we were married on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada. Then, married again at St. James Episcopal Church in Austin, TX on June 27, 2015.
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When Citizens Untied was supported by the majority of the SC, the wording was changed to what defines a 501(c)(4). I am not an expert constitutional law person, but essentially the test went from “not primarily engaged in political activities” to “not engaged in a majority of political activities”. There was no working definition, so it left the agents, I guess, to develop a “sniff test”. Since CU was opening the barn door to all sorts of new political activity, the IRS was getting reams of new 501(c)(4) applications, but primarily from the right. If the motive was NOT to funnel money to political causes, the application could have been for a 501(c)(3)! Just another bit of collateral damage from Citizens United.