[EL] Will taxable groups hide political case?

[Scarberry, Mark]

The rest of the CQ article seems to be behind a pay wall. Of course there are limits to fair use; I'm not asking for the rest to be posted. But, contrary to the story's implication, isn't coordination still prohibited (at least for candidates for federal office)? For-profit corporations can't evade that prohibition, at least not openly, right? I suppose the point is that, as the article points out, they are less subject to IRS oversight and aren't required under tax laws to disclose as much about their activities as (c)(4)s; that makes coordination harder to detect.

Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine University School of Law


Sent from my iPad

On Mar 10, 2014, at 7:41 AM, "Rick Hasen" <rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:

“Will Taxable Groups Hide Political Cash?”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=59346>
Posted on March 10, 2014 7:39 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=59346> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Must-read <http://www.cq.com/doc/weeklyreport-4436511?from=blogE> CQ Weekly Cover story by Eliza Newlin Carney:

Unlike super PACs, which are not allowed to coordinate their activities with parties or candidates, a for-profit company need not keep politicians at arm’s length. And unlike politically active tax-exempt groups, which must publicly report their officers and grant recipients to the Internal Revenue Service, LLCs leave virtually no paper trail. With a little care they can avoid Federal Election Commission disclosures, public IRS filings and corporate taxes all at once — a dream come true, critics say, for publicity-shy big donors…..

But Kelner says numerous clients are approaching him with questions about how to organize themselves as for-profits, or as limited liability companies. They’re preparing for the possibility that the IRS will impose new political curbs on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups, says Kelner. Even if the new IRS rules never take effect, conservative and tea party organizers, in particular, are convinced that the agency is on a partisan campaign to shut them down. IRS and administration officials say the agency’s mistakes in the tea party cases resulted from confusion and human error, not ill intent.

“There’s an increasing appetite to get out from under IRS scrutiny,” confirms Indiana election lawyer James Bopp Jr., who has led numerous constitutional challenges to campaign finance restrictions.

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Posted in campaign finance<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=10>, tax law and election law<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=22>
...

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
hhttp://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org


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