Link: IRS Yanks Democratic Leadership Council Tax Status.
The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exempt status of the Democratic Leadership Council on the grounds it mainly benefited a private group – Democrats running for office – rather than the community at large.
The DLC has countered with a lawsuit in federal court, and the outcome could affect the increasing use of tax-exempt organizations by politicians and lobbyists, according to a Forbes magazine article headlined "The Democrats’ Little Tax Secret.”The conflict is not without its ironic twists. For one, the DLC’s chairman during the years the IRS claims it wasn’t bipartisan enough was Sen. Joe Lieberman, recently rejected by primary voters in Connecticut as being too pro-Bush.
To help make its case against the DLC, the Justice Department has hired a researcher from Public Citizen, the watchdog organization founded by Ralph Nader.And the DLC has hired an aide to former President George H.W. Bush to help make its case.
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