It is not the donors who are most likely to challenge such an
application, but the 501(c)(4) lobbying organizations that are the
recipients. Whatever their usual issues might be, they will unite in
opposing application of the gift tax to their donors, and thus
threaten most of the donations to the campaigns of election
candidates. One of the surest ways to get a statutory exemption for
individual and corporate gifts to other than 501(c)(3) and
5019c)(19) nonprofits is to apply gift tax to their donors.
Missing from this article is the point that gift and estate taxes,
as well as taxes on compensation for labor, are unconstitutional.
There is no unbroken chain of authority leading from the
Constitution, through statutes, through regulations, to instructions
in tax manuals or actions of the IRS. Further, they are not "income"
as that term was originally understood, which only includes earnings
on land or capital or profits on sales. The only authority of IRS
agents is that they are better organized and armed than most
taxpayers. They have no more lawful authority than members of a
street gang extorting "protection" from merchants. It is time to
replace the so-called "income" tax with a purchase
tax.
On 05/11/2011 06:15 AM, Lloyd Mayer wrote:
There are numerous grounds for challenging application of
the gift tax in this context (see two articles by Barbara
Rhomberg, one
relating to constitutional issues and one
relating to other legal issues).
-- Jon
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Constitution Society http://constitution.org
2900 W Anderson Ln C-200-322 twitter.com/lex_rex
Austin, TX 78757 512/299-5001 jon.roland@constitution.org
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