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Democracy 21 News Release, August 9, 2012, www.democracy21.org
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Watchdog Groups Call on IRS to Ignore Partisan Pressure From Republican
Senators and Proceed to Consider New Eligibility Rules for 501(c)(4)
Organizations
In
a letter sent today to the IRS, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal
Center, called on the agency to ignore the partisan pressures they have received
from Republican Senators and proceed to consider new eligibility regulations
for section 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations.
The letter
to the IRS stated:
According
to news reports, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and other Republican Senators have
sent a letter to the IRS urging the agency to delay undertaking any effort to
revise IRS regulations that govern the extent to which a group eligible for
tax-exempt status as a section 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organization can
engage in candidate campaign activity.
The
letter from the Republican Senators is apparently in response to the letter
you sent to our organizations dated July 17, 2012 in which you said you
would consider changes in this area.
According to Democracy 21 President Fred
Wertheimer:
It
appears obvious that Senator Orrin Hatch and his Senate Republican colleagues
are attempting to intimidate the IRS into backing away from dealing with the
corrupting problem of secret money being laundered into federal elections
through section 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations. Senator Hatch and his
Senate Republican colleagues apparently are acting to protect the secret donors
to groups like Crossroads GPS, which is ripping off the tax laws by posing as a
"social welfare" organization to keep its donors hidden from the public.
Ironically,
Karl Rove, a founder of Crossroads GPS, explicitly confirmed in a Wall Street
Journal op-ed last week that more than $50 million in
ads run by his group Crossroads GPS are campaign ads intended to damage
President Obama and boost Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign.
In an act of hubris, Rove has publicly stripped away the phony claim that his
group, Crossroads GPS, is a "social welfare" organization and not a campaign
operation.
It
is essential that the IRS resist and ignore the partisan pressures from Senator
Hatch and his Senate Republican colleagues, or any other partisan pressures,
and proceed with a rulemaking to revise the regulations that govern eligibility
for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. New regulations are essential to stop the
widespread abuses of the tax laws that are taking place in order to keep the
donors financing their campaign expenditures secret from the American people.
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