Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Electioneering and Tax Law:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_05_27-2007_06_02.shtml#1180843086
Tax-exempt organizations -- including religious organizations --
aren't allowed to expressly support or oppose the election of
candidates, or the enactment of legislation. General public education,
including advocacy, is fine, but not electioneering or lobbying; if
they want to do that, they need to set up arms that collect
non-tax-exempt donations (so-called 501(c)(4)s, as opposed to the
tax-exempt 501(c)(3)s).
The Court has upheld this scheme against First Amendment challenge,
reasoning that tax exemptions for contributions are a form of subsidy,
and the government can impose restrictions on what this subsidy is
used for, so long as they are viewpoint-neutral (i.e., no
electioneering would be fine, no electioneering in favor of racist
candidates would not be). Of course, there are often difficulties in
deciding what's forbidden express support or opposition and what's
permitted education and advocacy; the IRS has [1]new guidance on the
electioneering side of the question.
In any case, [2]Paul Caron (taxprof) passes along an interesting new
controversy on this, not terribly novel legally but striking because
of the speech involved: An Internet message from an evangelist that
"If You Vote for Mitt Romney, You Are Voting for Satan." Talk about
demonizing your opposition. In any event, an excerpt from Paul's post,
[T]oday's Washington Post item Separation of Church and State and
Tax Exemptions:
Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual --
not political -- statement when he warned the 2.4 million
subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that "if you vote for
Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!"
But the Washington-based advocacy group Americans United for
Separation of Church and State says the IRS should revoke the
501(c)(3) tax-exempt status of Bill Keller Ministries, nonetheless.
Paul points out that the evangelist's statement was indeed likely
illegal (again, for a 501(c)(3) that's using tax-exempt funds).
References
1. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rr-07-41.pdf
2. http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/06/irs_asked_to_in.html
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
