Updates on Developments in Campaign Finance, Lobbying & Government Ethics Law
“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review.”
In an unexpected move that surprised some and angered others, Lois Lerner, Director of Exempt Organizations of the Internal Revenue Service, publicly apologized for the…
Continue Reading IRS Says: “That was wrong.”
This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism held a hearing on “Current Issues in Campaign Finance Law Enforcement.” The focus of the hearing was what the Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service are doing to enforce campaign finance law violations post-Citizens United with respect…
Continue Reading Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Campaign Finance Enforcement Hearing
In a press statement yesterday announcing that he would not run for re-election to the Senate in 2014, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) foreshadowed a new investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (“PSI”) concerning what he described as the IRS’s “failure” to police the use of undisclosed political money…
Continue Reading Levin Warns of Congressional Investigation Concerning Undisclosed Money in Elections
Like the men and women in red suits ringing bells on street corners, press reports are springing up everywhere alleging that numerous 501(c)(4) social welfare groups—including groups on both sides of the aisle—have violated their tax-exempt status by spending too much time and money on political campaign activities during the…
Continue Reading ‘Tis the Season!
In a floor statement yesterday, Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, blasted the IRS for allowing 501(c)(4) organizations to “exploit” the tax code and spend millions on political campaign activity. In connection with his statement, the…
Continue Reading IRS to Senator Levin: IRS Conducting Over 70 Audits of 501(c)(4) Organizations
The Congressional Research Service has issued a report analyzing whether the federal gift tax applies to contributions made to 501(c)(4) organizations. Many years ago, the IRS took the position in rulings that the gift tax applied. However, the IRS had not enforced the tax for over 20 years until 2011,…
Continue Reading Congressional Research Service Concludes that the Federal Gift Tax Should Apply To Contributions to 501(c)(4) Social Welfare Organizations
Yesterday, 10 Republican members of the U.S. Senate, led by Senator Orrin Hatch, wrote to the IRS and urged it to resist calls to limit the amount of political activity that 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations are permitted to engage in under a Treasury Regulation that has been in effect for…
Continue Reading Checkmate!
The week roared in like a lion with the public disclosure of an IRS letter to Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center that, to some reform-minded readers, heralded the advent of long-sought changes limiting the amount of political activity that can be engaged in by 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations. …
Continue Reading 501(c)(4)s — The Week In Retrospect
In an exchange of letters released Monday by Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, the IRS has stated that it will consider changes in the rules relating to political activity by 501(c)(4) organizations as it works to identify tax issues that should be addressed through regulations or other…
Continue Reading The IRS and 501(c)(4) Groups: Change May Come, But Not Quickly Enough For Some
