[EL] IRS denial of 501(c)(4) status show broad definition of political ac...

[BZall at aol.com]

Actually, with all due respect to my long-time friend and colleague John  
Pomeranz, the essence of the "Advocacy Project" or "Group 7822" scandal was 
not  that all processing of 1024s was halted; there were many that were 
processed in  the normal course. Many of us had some processed and approved, 
which made the  blockage of the others all the more confusing.
 
What happened is that a few -- less than 300 out of several thousand filed  
during the relevant time period -- were pulled out of the normal processing 
 stream, sent to a mysterious processing group -- known as Group 7822, 
though the  Service personnel who were normally quite helpful would not tell us 
the number  or even that the group existed -- and treated under very 
different criteria. I  had one of those groups as a client - first processed in 
Richmond, Virginia,  then shipped to Group 7822, then to IRS national 
headquarters, where it sat for  years before getting the expedited processing of 
those who agreed to the  procedures of the new "clear the problem" Letter 5228. 
And this Form 1024  application was, in most material respects, identical to 
those filed a few weeks  before which breezed through in a matter of four 
weeks or less. Except that  someone decided it looked too "Tea Party-ish" and 
froze it. 
 
And I don't really care whether it was directed expressly by the President, 
 or done by Lois Lerner herself. What I care about most was that the IRS  
personnel lied about it - by omission and commission. To our faces. When we  
asked. And we did ask. John was one of those asking, as did I, and many 
other  members of the First Tuesday Lunch monthly meeting group of exempt  
organization/campaign finance attorneys. And I sat right behind Celia Roady when  
she asked her planted question, to which the response was "low-level 
employees  in Cincinnati" did what they always do with an increase in 
applications: they  put them together for batch processing. Not at all what happened. 
The system  works because of some level of trust between the IRS and the 
exempt organization  bar, and all that has broken down now. To everyone's 
detriment. 
 
There is no explanation that can make that look better. If not a crime,  
it's at least a shame. 

Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel 
Weinberg, Jacobs  & Tolani, LLP 
10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500
Bethesda, MD  20817
301-231-6943 (direct dial) 
bzall at aol.com  
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