Jeff, Richard, all,
527 information is publicly available on the IRS web site. The
statutory ban Richard cites does not apply to this info, which must be
filed with the IRS pursuant to a 2000 law. Go to
http://forms.irs.gov/politicalOrgsSearch/search/basicSearch.jsp?ck. It
should be noted that the IRS web site does not make it easy, and in that
respect Rep. Tiberi (who is my representative, by the way - I'll need to
straighten him out!) has a point. You need to know where to look. But
that hardly contradicts Jeff's point, and it frustrates me no end when
one keeps hearing people call these organizations "shadowy" groups.
BTW, you can also link to the IRS site from the FEC site, but the FEC
could probably stand a minor improvement here too - the FEC site is easy
to use, but not labeled well - if you go to the FEC site and click on
"Campaign Finance Reports and Data" (so far so good) you then have to
deduce to look for the link to the IRS under "other campaign finance
data." And the link takes you to the IRS general 527 site - you've got
to do a couple links from there due to the complexity of the IRS site.
Bradley A. Smith
Professor of Law
Capital University Law School
Columbus, Ohio
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On Behalf Of Jeffrey MA
Hauser
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 5:05 PM
To: richard@shepardlawoffice.com; election-law
Subject: Re: RE: Electionlawblog news and commentary 2/23/06
And Congress would, because it is incapable of making an exception to
that statute for 527s, be forced to increase regulation of 527s?
That's a rather odd argument.
----- Original Message -----
From: richard@shepardlawoffice.com
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2006 3:09 pm
Subject: RE: Electionlawblog news and commentary 2/23/06
The IRS is prevented by statute from disclosing anything from a
return filed
by a taxpayer. 26 USC ? 6103.
Richard Shepard, Attorney at Law
Shepard Law Office, Inc.
818 S. Yakima Ave., #200
Tacoma, WA 98405
253-383-2235
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu]On Behalf Of
Jeffrey MA
Hauser
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 11:10 AM
To: election-law
Subject: Re: Electionlawblog news and commentary 2/23/06
I LOVE the sophistication of Congressman Tiberi's argument:
"If you want to find out who these groups are and where they get their
money, good luck. These organizations aren't regulated in the same
manner as a candidate's campaign committee. A candidate files regular
contribution and expenditure reports with the Federal Elections
Committee, but what most people don't realize is that 527s report
theirfinancial information to the Internal Revenue Service. So you
won't find
out who contributed to them and how much unless you know where to
look."http://www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek.php?edition=common&story=this
weeknews/0
22306/NewAlbany/News/022306-News-102142.html
SO, apparently Americans are really expert at retrieiving data from
theFEC, but the barriers toward making them equally capable with
the IRS
are insurmountable?