IRS Releases Results of illegal political campaiging of non-profits....

[Flabbergasted]

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154780,00.html

Nearly three-quarters of 82 examinations completed to date have concluded that the tax-exempt organizations, including churches, engaged in some level of prohibited political activity. Most of these exams concerned one-time, isolated occurrences of prohibited campaign activity, which the IRS addressed through written advisories to the organizations. In three cases – involving tax-exempt organizations that were not churches – the prohibited activity was egregious enough to warrant the IRS proposing the revocation of the organizations’ tax-exempt status. The recent examinations resulted from specific referrals and covered only a small segment of the tax-exempt community, which includes more than 1 million tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) organizations in the U.S.

Some of the specific instances of political intervention alleged and examined include the following:

• Charities, including churches, distributing diverse printed materials that encouraged their members to vote for a particular candidate (24 alleged; 9 determined),
• Religious leaders using the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate (19 alleged; 12 determined),
• Charities, including churches, endorsing or opposing a candidate on their website or through links to another website (15 alleged; 7 determined),
• Charities, including churches, disseminating voter guides or candidate ratings that encourage readers to vote for particular candidates (14 alleged; 4 determined),
• Charities, including churches, placing signs on their property that show they support a particular candidate (12 alleged; 9 determined),
• Charities, including churches, giving improper preferential treatment to certain candidates by permitting them to speak at functions (11 alleged; 9 determined), and
• Charities, including churches, making cash contributions to a candidate’s political campaign (7 alleged; 5 determined).

[MadMaddie]

1. so what is the IRS going to do about it?

[demosincebirth]

2. I'd like to know who they are?

[DUHandle]

3. If you haven’t already, go here

http://www.guidestar.org/

and open an account. The free one will only get you access to 990’s which is just about enough.

Very, very eye opening.

[Flabbergasted]

4. That's really fascinating...I was studying a particular nonprofit yesterda

and found this site but decided not to open an account.....

I will today

Thanks...

What do you find "revealing"?

[DUHandle]

5. A non profit I used to work for has on it's payroll

the director of a fairly well heeled foundation.

A food pantry I do volunteer work for is squeaky clean.

Also, within the last few days someone posted here about the Christian kids conference and someone else about DeLay speaking at a "They are out to kill Christians" conference.

Same group, much money.

Today, someone posted about non profits that the IRS found less than clean. Abranoff used non profits to distribute his largess.