How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare

[amerciti001]

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare

http://projects.propublica.org/dark-money/organizations/all

Well now, since everybody is up in arms over the IRS handling of the applications of these so called 501(c)4 organizations, here's a couple of links that may help you to understand that what really happened here with the IRS is the uncovering of a vast right-wing conspiracy to really fund and rig the election process with dark money coming in from all points of the compass.

-snip-
http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/the-real-irs-scandal/

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in January 2010, donors flocked to 501(c)(4)s as a vehicle to pump cash into elections without disclosing the source of their contributions. The number of groups applying for social-welfare status has since doubled. In 2012, the news outlet ProPublica examined 72 501(c)(4) applications from groups that claimed to have no plans to spend money on elections. They compared those documents against the subsequent tax returns. Nearly half of the groups found their plans had changed.

-snip-
http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare

An investigation by ProPublica, drawing on documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, offers the most detailed picture to date of how 501(c)(4) groups have used their tax status for purposes likely never intended.

Our examination shows that dozens of these groups do little or nothing to justify the subsidies they receive from taxpayers. Instead, they are pouring much of their resources, directly or indirectly, into political races at the local, state and federal level.

The 2010 election functioned, effectively, as a dry run, providing a blueprint for what social welfare groups are doing on a larger scale today. Records on what is happening in the 2012 campaign will not be available until well after the election.

So, before you go siding with the Rethugs as being singled out, remember it's their game plan that you are acknowledging as being ok, to provide the blueprint for what so called "social welfare" groups,i.e. Tea Party affiliates, can do with campaign finances in the future.

Guess what?, that's also your future as well.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Thank you, and welcome.

K&R

[Anansi1171]

2. Thank you for posting the ground truth here!-NT

[SunSeeker]

3. The IRS needs to audit ALL 501(c)4 groups.

And the IRS code says the groups must engage "exclusively" in social welfare activities to be tax exempt. That disqualifies EVERY tea party group.

[freshwest]

4. +1,000

[uponit7771]

5. +1

[DFW]

6. Rove's "non-profit" is non-profit.....

Like Louie Gohmert is the president of EMILY'S List.

[Deny and Shred]

7. The abuse of non-profit status is the real scandal

In the CMO mess, the ratings agencies looked at only a small percentage of the total combined mortgages within a security, 10-20%. In short time, Wall Street handed them that percentage of good mortgages, and filled the rest of the security with known garbage. This is similar. They want to overwhelm the regulatory capacity, so some organizations get no scrutiny. This 'scandal' is an attempt to shame the regulators into less future scrutiny.

When an understaffed regulatory agency gets a unique huge spike in activity, in this case 501(c)(4) applications, it may have to take steps like using keyword identification to narrow the potential field of infractions, because they know they can't investigate all of them.

The real point is that it is the IRS's job to make sure that a non-profit isn't abusing its mandate. If they abuse it, it is their JOB to catch them. The travesty is that the GOP meme is we are not supposed to look, as if the fact that the IRS wanted to look is wrong somehow. In a perfect world, the IRS would check all 501(c)(4)s - last thing the GOP wants.

If the IRS doesn't, who else should? GOP Answer: Nobody, because we have more $$$, and we want to spend it politically, and we want to do so tax-free.

[John2]

8. Yes, it is the real

scandal, but it is also exposing the media bias. Just like with Benghazi, they are trying to put this entire thing on President Obama and his Administration but it was Congress itself forced the IRS to place more scrutiny on these Groups. It was Senator Schumer and six other Democratic senators put the focus on these groups by writing a letter to the IRS forcing them to act. The whole thing is surreal with them pointing fingers on the Whitehouse. The issue was legit but they are trying to attach something to Obama. It will all blow up in their faces again and the knee jerk pundits calling for resignations and firings will look stupid again when all the facts are revealed.

[ananda]

9. Good info.

Thanks