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People are Getting a Little Worked Up Over Proposed IRS Non-Profit Guidance

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

YOU SHALL NOT STIFLE MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE A PARTISAN GROUP PRETENDING TO BE A SOCIAL WELFARE GROUP!

Richard Rubin points out this morning that the topic at hand — Guidance for Tax-Exempt Social Welfare Organizations on Candidate-Related Political Activities (REG-134417-13) — is generating quite the vocal buzz.

This should come as no surprise since the uninformed masses have been groomed to think this is a free speech issue. Also, Obama.

Case in point:

These regulations are nothing but an attempt to legalize the harassment of conservative, Christian, and Tea Party groups by the Obama administration. No one has been held accountable for the blatant targeting of conservatives by the IRS. Lois Lerner took the Fifth Amendment, was placed on "paid" leave, and allowed to retire with full pension and benefits. The proposed regulations simply codify this targeting, and therefore should be withdrawn.

and:

I am steadfastly against the proposed regulations that directly violate the First Amendment of the Constitution which ensures the federal government shall not infringe on our Freedom of Speech.

These regulations would strip citizens’ right to send organized communication within weeks of an election and prohibit identifying a candidate or political party who supports Obama’s pro-forced unionism agenda.

I urge the Federal Government to drop Regulation IR-2013-92 and its unconstitutional restrictions on citizen organizations, and to cease using tax laws to suppress political speech.

The funny part about that last one was the fact that the defender of the Constitution didn't care to sign his or her name to the comment and remained anonymous just like our founding fathers would have wanted.

76,186 comments and counting. Anyone else going to weigh in?

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Non-Profits Are Feeling the Pain

WSJ has a Monday piece “Once-Robust Charity Sector Hit With Mergers, Closings” (the Recession Forces Nonprofits to Consolidate) that may be found here. It tells the story of a “homeless” woman with terminal lung cancer and a charity no longer able to afford to help her out. Sad.

When one charity’s COO says “we’ve had funding cut after funding cut, and we never know when the next shoe is going to drop,” that is a bad sign.

Hit by a drop in donations and government funding in the wake of a deep recession, nonprofits—from arts councils to food banks—are undergoing a painful restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, cutbacks and closings.

“Like in the animal kingdom, at some point, the weaker organizations will not be able to survive,” says Diana Aviv, chief executive of Independent Sector, a coalition of 600 nonprofits.

I saw that on the Discovery Channel and it wasn’t pretty.

Note: the Service says the value of your blood is not deductible as a charitable donation but cars are. As of 2005, cars are only deductible at FMV, not Blue Book. Damn you, fair value, foiled by the free market again!

Blame the Service for tightening its charitable donation rules at the worst possible time? Not sure on that one. While you’re reluctant to donate your $200 Toyota (ha) to charity because you could have claimed $2,000 under old rules, find some comfort in the fact that (alleged) terrorist “non profits” can not file for 2 years and somehow get away with it. You wonder why I advocate fixing the system from the ground up?

You can text $10 to Haiti but what about the “Economic Homeless” here in America? asks Young Money.

If this were a survey and you asked me “What do you think the IRS could do to encourage charitable donations?” I would answer “Tax breaks. It isn’t the Treasury’s job to distribute bailouts.” Yet they continue to behave as though it is their duty.

See the problem yet?

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