Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Corporate front groups got a big fat Christmas present in the recently passed Omnibus spending bill. Congress is hoping that voters are too distracted with holiday preparations to look at the fine print in its more than 2,000 pages.
We were winding our way through its copious contents when we stumbled upon its section on the IRS. Somehow this so-called “spending” bill has legislated into law a right-wing vendetta against the Internal Revenue Service. For example, the IRS is effectively stripped of its ability to writes new rules on 501(c)(4) organizations. Those organizations are increasingly being used as corporate-funded political front groups masquerading as social welfare organizations: The new Omnibus law reads as follows:
“During fiscal year 2016: (1) none of the funds made available in this or any other Act may be used by the Department of the Treasury, including the Internal Revenue Service, to issue, revise, or finalize any regulation, revenue ruling, or other guidance not limited to a particular taxpayer relating to the standard which is used to determine whether an organization is operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare for purposes of section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (including the proposed regulations published at 78 Fed. Reg. 71535 (November 29, 2013)); and (2) the standard and definitions as in effect on January 1, 2010, which are used to make such determinations shall apply after the date of the enactment of this Act for purposes of determining status under section 501(c)(4) of such Code of organizations created on, before, or after such date.”
This is clearly meant as payback for the allegations made in 2013, serially fanned on the right-wing editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, that the IRS was targeting right-wing groups for investigation and intentionally holding up approvals on their tax-exempt status.
This new legislation now provides legal certainly to these tax-exempt groups that corporate donors will not have to be disclosed and massive amounts of political money can sluice through their operations to mount major television political ad campaigns heading into the Presidential election of 2016.
Three individuals that you can bet are cheering this new legislation are Charles and David Koch and Cleta Mitchell. As we reported in 2013…
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