Charities' Tax Breaks Scrutinized

[The Backlash Cometh]

(Hopefully this will be applied to all those churches that are springing up everywhere).

Widespread Abuses Prompt Congress to Rethink Laws

In the wake of a long-running series of scandals and controversies involving charities and nonprofits, Congress's tax-writing committees are launching an effort this week to crack down on fraudulent activities and tighten laws governing tax exemptions for those groups.

The Senate Finance Committee will look at a broad range of possible revisions, including changes that would greatly increase disclosure requirements, require outside audits of many charities, stiffen the rules covering credit counseling groups, and require nonprofits to refile with the Internal Revenue Service every five years to justify their continued nonprofit status. The House oversight panel is reviewing the billing practices of nonprofit hospitals.

Congress has reacted angrily to revelations of abuses by a wide variety of charities, including scandals at well-established organizations such as United Way and the Nature Conservancy, and the disclosure that some tax-exempt groups have been acting as "accommodation parties" in abusive tax shelters.

Many of the proposals would extend to public charities most of the restrictions now applied only to private foundations and other private charities.

"It's obvious from the abuses we see that there's been no check on charities. Big money, tax free, and no oversight have created a cesspool in too many cases," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said late last week. "It's time for Congress to send a message." Added Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.), the ranking Democrat on the panel: "The examples of abuse surrounding charitable organizations are growing at an alarming rate. . . . These actions are immoral and inexcusable -- and threaten to taint the reputation of all charitable organizations."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56406-2004Jun20.html

[FlaGranny]

1. Noticeable absence

of "religious organizations" engaging in politics.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Yeah, I noticed that one too.

Funny how they are shocked, SHOCKED! that public non-profits will do what the private organizations have been doing for decades.

But that's what happens when you appoint Republicans to positions of authority, be it public or private.