The letter to the IRS from Democracy 21 and
the Campaign Legal Center stated:
In
your July 17 letter, you acknowledged receipt of our earlier letters to the IRS
in which we submitted and then supplemented
a petition for rulemaking that challenges as inadequate and contrary to law
the existing IRS regulations which set eligibility criteria for section
501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.
As
we have noted in a series of letters to the IRS, groups that clearly have an
overriding purpose to influence elections are claiming status as "social
welfare" organizations in order to keep secret the donors whose funds they are
spending to influence the 2012 presidential and congressional elections.
Your
July 17 letter to us recognized that the existing regulations in this area were
put in place more than a half century ago, that you "are aware of the current
public interest" in this matter and that you "will consider proposed changes in
this area."
The letter continued:
We
consider the letter you recently received from the Republican Senators to be a
partisan effort to pressure the IRS to back away from the position you
correctly took in your July 17 letter to look at new regulations to govern
eligibility for section 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.
We
believe the Republican Senators' letter is intended to preserve the ability of
groups with an overriding purpose to support Republican candidates to continue
to improperly claim tax-exempt status as "social welfare" organizations in
order to keep secret the donors financing their campaign expenditures.
We
urge you in the strongest possible terms to ignore this partisan pressure or
any other partisan attempts to dissuade the IRS from carrying out its
responsibilities to properly interpret the tax laws and protect the interests
of American taxpayers and voters.
The letter stated:
As
you know, in addition to the petition we submitted to the IRS we have also
filed complaints with the IRS to challenge improper claims of eligibility for
section 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status by pro-Republican, pro-Democratic and
independent groups. We have called on the IRS to investigate and take
appropriate enforcement action against these groups.
These
groups include Crossroads GPS, the brainchild of Republican Party operative
Karl Rove, whose purpose is to support Republican candidates, and Priorities
USA, formed by two former Obama White House officials, whose purpose is to
support President Obama's reelection.
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