What exactly constitutes "candidate-related political activities?"

[eagle1462010]

How the IRS Wants to Prevent Another Tea Party Scandal

Months after the Internal Revenue Service acknowledged that it had singled out for extra scrutiny conservative and Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status, the agency Tuesday proposed regulations that would clarify some of the rules for those tax-exempt groups.

The situation for tax-exempt social welfare organizations, or 501(c)4s, is pretty complicated, but the new proposals are one attempt to iron out one of the murkier questions: What exactly constitutes "candidate-related political activities?"

None of this is final yet, because the IRS is seeking public comment. And the person President Obama put in charge to oversee the agency's recovery from the scandal, IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel, is still on the job. But here are a few things to know:

What does this have to do with the Tea Party?

Earlier this year, the IRS admitted that it had inappropriately scrutinized the Tea Party and other conservative groups that were applying for tax-exempt status, sometimes delaying their applications for many months.

Though Republicans have suggested that there were political motivations for this, the IRS has insisted that its employees had set aside the applications to figure out whether these groups were engaged in so much political activity they couldn't possibly qualify for tax-exempt status.

In some cases, the IRS actually asked for an inordinate amount of documentation, or probed the groups for information (such as what books were on their reading lists).

What are the rules now?

These groups are governed by a fairly vague standard: They can't be "primarily engaged in express political advocacy but have to be focused mostly on "social welfare" activities.

What does that mean, exactly? Well that's what the IRS wants to know.

The IRS has proposed a definition of "political activities" (we'll get to that later), but it is soliciting comment from the public about what exactly "primarily" means.

Many campaign finance lawyers interpret that to mean that more than 50 percent of their activities have to be nonpolitical. Others interpret that to mean 60 percent, or 80 percent, so on and so forth.

The IRS will eventually decide whether that word "primarily" needs to be clarified, and if so, what it should actually mean.

The IRS is asking for our help. To Decide and Clarify what primarily means.

So what does it mean?

 

[eagle1462010]

Experts Say IRS Guidance Will Restrict Free Speech | Washington Free Beacon

Campaign finance experts criticized on Tuesday guidance from the Internal Revenue Service on activity by 501(c)(4) advocacy groups, saying it will unduly restrict activity that rightfully falls under the federal government’s “social welfare” moniker.

The IRS and the Treasury Department, in a joint statement, presented the new regulations as a means to make rules governing nonprofit groups more clear cut and enforceable.

“This is an astonishing—and from this feckless, hyper-partisan administration, unsurprising—effort to curtail the free speech of Americans who come together to better their community,” said campaign finance attorney Dan Backer in an email.

The move was widely seen as a reaction to an ongoing scandal involving IRS treatment of applicants for 501(c)(4) status that were singled out for their perceived affiliations with the Tea Party movement.

However, experts say the guidance goes too far and amounts to an effort to roll back the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which liberals have decried as allowing undisclosed donors too much influence over the political process.

Some noted that provisions restricting communications that mention a political candidate or party within 60 days of a general election and 30 days of a primary are similar to pre-Citizens United prohibitions on such communications.

“This is another transparent attempt by the administration to overturn that decision,” said Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Election Law Reform initiative at the Heritage Foundation and a former Federal Election Commissioner.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who has spearheaded the congressional investingation into the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups, called the guidance “a crass political effort by the administration to get what political advantage they can, when they can.”

“The regulation released today continues [the administration's] unfortunate pattern of stifling constitutional free speech,” Issa said in a statement.

This is an article about some of the current responses, including Issa.

 

[eagle1462010]

Statement: Proposed Rules on 501(c)(4) Groups - Washington Wire - WSJ

The Obama administration Tuesday proposed a crackdown on the widespread use of tax-exempt organizations for political campaigning, seeking to reduce the influential role that the secretive groups have played in recent elections. Here is the press release announcing the proposal.

TREASURY, IRS WILL ISSUE PROPOSED GUIDANCE FOR TAX-EXEMPT SOCIAL WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS

Initial Proposed Guidance Clarifies Qualification Requirements and Seeks Public Input

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today will issue initial guidance regarding qualification requirements for tax-exemption as a social welfare organization under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This proposed guidance defines the term “candidate-related political activity,” and would amend current regulations by indicating that the promotion of social welfare does not include this type of activity. The proposed guidance also seeks initial comments on other aspects of the qualification requirements, including what proportion of a 501(c)(4) organization’s activities must promote social welfare.

The initial guidance is expected to be posted on the Federal Register later today.

In defining the new term, “candidate-related political activity,” Treasury and the IRS drew upon existing definitions of political activity under federal and state campaign finance laws, other IRS provisions, as well as suggestions made in unsolicited public comments.

Under the proposed guidelines, candidate-related political activity includes:

Communications

Communications that expressly advocate for a clearly identified political candidate or candidates of a political party.
Communications that are made within 60 days of a general election (or within 30 days of a primary election) and clearly identify a candidate or political party.
Communications expenditures that must be reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Grants and Contributions

Any contribution that is recognized under campaign finance law as a reportable contribution.
Grants to section 527 political organizations and other tax-exempt organizations that conduct candidate-related political activities (note that a grantor can rely on a written certification from a grantee stating that it does not engage in, and will not use grant funds for, candidate-related political activity).

Activities Closely Related to Elections or Candidates

Voter registration drives and “get-out-the-vote” drives.
Distribution of any material prepared by or on behalf of a candidate or by a section 527 political organization.
Preparation or distribution of voter guides that refer to candidates (or, in a general election, to political parties).
Holding an event within 60 days of a general election (or within 30 days of a primary election) at which a candidate appears as part of the program.
These proposed rules reduce the need to conduct fact-intensive inquiries, including inquiries into whether activities or communications are neutral and unbiased.

Some of the rules they are proposing with more to come.............

 

[eagle1462010]

https://www.federalregister.gov/art...ons-on-candidate-related-political-activities

SUMMARY

This document contains proposed regulations that provide guidance to tax-exempt social welfare organizations on political activities related to candidates that will not be considered to promote social welfare. These regulations will affect tax-exempt social welfare organizations and organizations seeking such status. This document requests comments from the public regarding these proposed regulations. This document also requests comments from the public regarding the standard under current regulations that considers a tax-exempt social welfare organization to be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare if it is “primarily” engaged in activities that promote the common good and general welfare of the people of the community, including how this standard should be measured and whether this standard should be changed.

This is the Federal Registry page.............

And this is there current proposal.............

 

[eagle1462010]

To be fair, I posted the articles and the current proposals..............

To me, this is an attempt to Limit Non profit donations by changing the definition.

Since the Citizens United Case, the Dems have been raising hell about it. Primarily because they lost the argument at the Supreme Court.

Now, they will attempt to amend the rules to get their way.

This isn't about clarification. It's about changing the rules to get their way.

On the good side, it'll take them a while to try and push these amendments through.............