jackconrad wrote:Government to investigate possible election fraud in 2012 Presidential Election !
FROM MY EARLIER POST:
OK.
I read everything above and the seemingly unanimous incriminations of the situation(s) by both sides of the isle and the Executive Branch. Given that such bipartisanship denouncement is so rare, I hypothesized that politics may not be the only reason for what seems to have happened. So, I started to try to read the actual IRS code at the heart of the matter. Surprise, surprise! A person needs to be born with a particular set of brain cells organized in a very specific pattern to even be able to be trained to understand what's involved- and I certainly am not one of them.
So, I found an IRS publication that is supposed to explain matters more easily and while I do not profess to truly understanding some to much of what I read, here is my non-political, background summary:
Average time for approval of a properly and fully documented Application for a 501(c)(4) about 10-15 years ago was 90 days. When an Applications was incomplete or the IRS needed further, additional information and/or documentation, the average approval time extended out to 210 days. Mind you, this was a decade ago. PACs were certainly around, but not like they were in the last two Presidential Elections. More recent indications of the time frames are averages of 60-365 days. Remember well, these are just the averages.
The problem, it seems, purely from the IRS' perspective is that a Subsection (4) is not taxable while a 501(c)(3) is taxable. Likewise, donations to each are tax deductible and non-tax deductible, respectively. So, the implication I see is that there is a ton of money here and there are very serious financial advantage to one type of Subsection organization vs. the other and their donors. Obviously, it is highly likely the norm that every somewhat similar organization tries to obtain the economically more advantageous Subsection (4) approval.
Hyper-complexity arises in part because both permit political lobbying, contributions, and support for specific issues and candidates. And, there is further technical complexity in the matter because a Subsection(4) is even permitted to own a Subsection (3). That is, a tax exempt organization can own its own non-tax exempt organization. Go figure that one out!
As one may suspect, the two Subsections have different contribution and reporting rules regarding contributor lists and the corresponding amounts one can lawfully contribute to each. On top of that, there is the issue of anonymous donation vs. identified donation reporting rules, which are based on how the two types of organizations operate.
And, the Application process is beyond complex, while at the same time it is my personal experience that the number of qualified 501(c)(3-4) accountants and lawyers in each state is very, very small- and further diminished by partisan politics.
So, my best bipartisan suspicion is that many organizations' Subsection (c)(4) applicants are unable to adequately prepare their own Applications because they simply lack the expertise (no surprise);don't even actually realize the maze they are walking in to; and cannot afford to hire professional assistance. This is a non-partisan shame for each of the separate "grass roots" organizations in each state which are not, by definition affiliated with one another, let alone a national umbrella organization.
Without personally getting in to the politics of all of this and the pointing of fingers, I found the following to be the least partisan in nature and most helpful in realizing and kind of understanding the unfathomable complexities here:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicl03.pdf
www.levin.senate.gov/download/?id=e113a062-73bb-42dd-bf16
www.levin.senate.gov/download/?id=9599e4e1-0fc6-48f6-83aa
www.levin.senate.gov/download/?id=6d757f18-737b-4d8f-b7b0
For those who simply can put their partisanship/ideology aside, I can honestly tell you that the links to letters back and forth from Senator Levin and the IRS are truly helpful to understanding all this IRS crap is... crap, and it seems like his promise to delve into campaign reform during this, his last term, is very serious- and hopefully as sincere as I think it just may be. Having spent a few hours learning a bit, I am further convinced that considering government paid for run-offs and elections is worthy of further consideration...
