These 501's should not get tax exempt statue....none of them in the political arena. Lorreta should have gone after all of them! Free fucking speech my ass... Originally Posted by WTFWTF, Both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations are tax exempt and should continue to be. "Tax exempt" means the entity doesn't pay tax on money it receives from contributors, like a for profit corporation would. Tax exempt does NOT mean contributions are tax deductible.
Neither type of organization can primarily exist for the purpose of "political campaign intervention" activities. They're organizations of like minded individuals that come together because they believe in a common cause or because they want to promote some good to society. I think most U.S. charities, like American Red Cross and United Way, are 501(c)(3)'s. Anyway, it would not be fair to tax either type of organization like a for profit corporation.
I don't know, but would suspect that neither of the political parties benefits more than the other from these types of groups.
The 501(c)(3) is an organization that exists for charitable purposes, thus the contributions are tax deductible. A 501(c)(3) can't engage in lobbying or in a political campaign.
A 501(c)(4) is a "social welfare" organization. Contributions to a 501(c)(4) are NOT tax deductible. The 501(c)(4) can "engage in political campaign intervention activities so long as such activities do not represent their primary activity."
How this might work - a group like Citizens for Tax Justice might have a 501(c)(3) that engages primarily in research. They would have a staff that's left of center in its biases, maybe people like Paul Krugman. Contributions to the 501(c)(3) would be tax deductible.
Then they might have a 501(c)(4), and its primary mission would be to educate politicians and the general public on why their taxes should be higher. Contributions to the 501(c)(4), again, are not tax deductible.
Btw, if you mean that contributions to 501's that engage in political activity should not qualify for tax deductions, I think you've got a strong case. And they're not supposed to.
Or do you think our Founding Fathers had Israel in mind? 
