Changing The Rules
When I last wrote about the 501(c)(4), ‘Social Welfare Organizations’ I noted that the IRS rules from 1959 were actually not in agreement with the clear wording of the 1954 law that they were based on. The rules allow for a lot more latitude in the conduct of the organizations, than the law, as written, allows.
After the faux-scandal of the ‘IRS targeting conservative groups’, the IRS was sued to get its rules changed to reflect the law.
CBS among others are reporting the changes as limits on non-profits. That is not correct, the IRS is being pushed to actually enforce the law, and this will cost a lot of the political action committees who have been hiding behind their wrongfully obtained 501(c)(4) status. The loss of the status means, they are going to have to report the names of their donors.
The rule-making process takes a long time, so nothing will actually change until the 2016 election. Even then, tracking the money will be a major task, because people with money tend to hire PR firms to keep their name out of the press.
