Lawyers Demand IRS Approve 10 Targeted Tea Party Groups

[meow2u3]

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents 27 tea party groups that say their applications for non-profit status were treated unfairly by the Internal Revenue Service, sent a letter to the IRS on Monday, demanding that tax-exempt status be immediately granted to 10 of the groups it represents.

The letter comes in the wake of the IRS' admission that applications for non-profit status by tea party and conservative 501(c)4 groups were wrongly targeted for further review.

Of the 27 groups represented by the Jay Sekulow-led ACLJ, 15 have been granted tax-exempt status, 10 groups' statuses are pending, and two groups have withdrawn their applications out of "frustration." In its letter to the IRS on Monday, the ACLJ demanded that the IRS "approve immediately, and without further delay, the pending requests for either 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax exempt status of the following organizations: Albuquerque Tea Party, Allen Area Patriots, Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots, Greenwich Tea Party Patriots, Laurens County Tea Palty, Linchpins of Liberty, Myrtle Beach Tea Patty, North East Tarrant Tea Party, Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), and Unite in Action."

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/lawyers-demand-irs-approve-10-targeted-tea-party

Who the hell do those teabagger lawyers think they are? They're demanding preferential tax treatment for organizations with a clearly political agenda and that the IRS look the other way while they create fake "social welfare" (read: far right political) organizations. That pisses me off to no end.

[DonCoquixote]

1. Thom Hartmann explains the real point

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16311-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann-the-irs-has-apologized-to-conservative-political-groups-for-singling-them-out-for-additional-review-and-more

"Why is the IRS apologizing for doing their job? The Associated Press reports that the Internal Revenue Service has issued a formal apology to conservative political groups for "singling them out for additional review." According to the report, groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names were subject to extra scrutiny during their attempts to gain non-profit status. The additional reviews were conducted during the 2012 election, to verify that the groups were not violating non-profit status. Under IRS rules, so-called charitable organizations can conduct political activities, but it can not be their primary focus. Lois Lerner, who oversees the tax-exempt IRS division, said that the additional scrutiny was conducted by low-level employees only, and that it was not motivated by political bias. The fact is, any non-profit group, regardless of political affiliation, should be following the same rules on political activities. Tax payers should not be subsidizing political think tanks. The only issue here is whether only conservative groups were targeted. If politicians want taxpayers to pick up the tab for campaigning, they should give up the corporate money and move to publicly financed elections."

[KharmaTrain]

2. Political Welfare!

That's what this kind of crap fuels. Sekulow makes a nice paycheck milking off the right wing suckers and shirking taxes due to his "non-profit" status. It's a nice tax shelter for his big money puppetmasters who then write off their "donations" (slush fund money) to this and other right wing "think tanks" and then consider them deductions on their already reduced taxes. Yep, it's a real nice scam and a big reason the IRS should investigate these groups for violations of the few remaining campaign finance laws and violating their 50c4 status. With the billions that flowed through last year's elections and the vast right wing "welfare" system, a good look into the connections between the teabaggers, corporates (like the Kochs) and politicians should be brought out of the shadows. The FEC is all but useless in this process, the IRS is one of the few government agencies that can and should investigate these new types of syndicates.

[meow2u3]

3. Better known as wingnut welfare

Wingnut welfare: Abusing the "non-profit", tax-exempt status to launder campaign contributions, a.k.a., tax evasion that, when called upon, creates a reaction of false outrage and pretension of victimhood status.

[zerosumgame0005]

4. Of course they are frustrated!

all that thar readin and writin ams HARD!