• Internal Revenue Service: An amazing new standard? Internal Revenue Service: An amazing new standard? By St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Feburary 7, 2005 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People assured itself of a showdown with the Internal
• Internal Revenue Service: An amazing new standard?
Internal Revenue Service: An amazing new standard?
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Feburary 7, 2005
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People assured itself of a showdown with the Internal Revenue Service by announcing recently that it will not turn over documents the IRS wants for its investigation of allegedly improper political activities by the civil rights group.
The IRS cited a speech last fall in which NAACP President Julian Bond condemned the policies of President George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq. The agency also requested information on the cost of the NAACP convention and the names and addresses of board members and how each voted on the distribution of Mr. Bond’s remarks. It’s incredible that a civil rights group would be investigated for criticizing the government for spending too little on education, mismanaging the economy or pushing the nation into needless war.
In a letter to the IRS, the NAACP charges that “political pressure, rather than any sound legal authority” prompted the audit. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson denied any political motivation for the audit. He said several dozen nonprofit groups were being investigated, based partly on complaints from two unidentified members of Congress.
But it’s curious that the IRS decided to go after the NAACP less than a month before a hotly contested presidential election. If Mr. Bond’s comments amounted to partisan politics, then what are we to make of election advice freely dispensed by Catholic bishops, or in voters guides passed out in churches of other denominations?
Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor and an expert on the political rights of tax-exempt groups, says it’s amazing that the IRS would audit a group based on an impassioned public speech. If Mr. Bond’s speech is sufficient to trigger an audit, the IRS apparently has developed a new standard, Ms. Hill said.
If the NAACP refuses to turn over the records, the IRS can ask a federal judge to order it to comply.
Maybe a court case is needed determine who’s over-reaching, the IRS or the NAACP.
