Conservatives are upset following the admission of IRS Commissioner Steve Miller that the department intentionally targeted businesses with “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their name during the 2012 tax year. Marco Rubio even called for Miller’s resignation. The President apologized for the conduct of the administration, sort of. And, of course,  Mark Levin is taking credit for uncovering it.

taxesThere is a simple answer to this: Citizens United stands for the proposition that any political action committee can donate unrestricted amounts of money to a political campaign. The most common organization structure for a PAC is a non-profit entity. A 501(c)(4), a tax-exempt organization status type based on it’s code section, is not intended for organizations that only engage in electioneering.  Hundreds of new 501(c)(4)’s began popping up to in 2010 to promote the midterm election, with the new rights afforded them by Citizen’s United. These institutions are only exempt if their purpose qualifies them for the exemption. Electioneering non-profits are not tax exempt. Note: donations to 501(c)(4)’s are not tax deductible.

Since non-profit organizations are notorious for tax evasion, the Tea Party movement is notorious for their desire  for no taxes, and the financial backers of the Tea Party have committed tax fraud in the past (and, for the record, are now trying the same trick under 510(c)(6)), it seems only prudent to treat them with more scrutiny.

To be fair, I find it wrong to use the government to target people for their political beliefs. But, when you use the same business model as all of your other interest group friends, and several of your interest group friends are all questionable with their contributions to this country, I think its important that reasonable evidence be used to track down and prosecute tax evasion. It’s what the IRS is supposed to do.

 

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