How Obama's Reforms To Overtime Law Will Change People's Lives

[SunSeeker]

6. I'd like to see Obama order the IRS to fix the reg that allows 501c3 corps to engage in politics.

The actual statute on 501c3 corporations, like Rove's American Crossroads and the many secret-donor Koch groups, says they can't engage in any politics, but these corps pour money into elections, thanks to Citizens United, subverting our democracy. Obama can't do anything about Citizens United, but he can do something about the ridiculous IRS regulation that allows these 501c3 corps to operate tax free as "social welfare" organizations.

Why? Because even though the 501c3 statute says they must be "exclusively" social welfare organizations for their tax-exempt status, some bureaucrat in the Eisenhower administration wrote a regulation purporting to interpret the statute for purposes of how the IRS will enforce it. This regulation defines "exclusively" as "primarily," a squishy almost unenforceable standard that has allowed 501c3 corps to engage in politics. The reg in essence rewrote the statute Congress passed 100 years ago. That is illegal and is the real IRS scandal nobody talks about (except for Lawrence O'Donnell)--because too many people's ox would be gored. But I still hope Obama tells the IRS to rewrite that reg to comply with IRS statute. It sure would make it a lot easier to enforce too. All those tax exempt teabagger 501c3 corps would lose their tax exempt status. We working folks have carried those pigs' tax burden long enough.