Opinion: Don’t Lump Political Groups With Advocacy Organizations

The Internal Revenue Service should create a new nonprofit category to require groups that pursue political advocacy to reveal their donors, writes a contributor to The New York Times.

David Callahan, a senior fellow at the think tank Demos, contends the tax code should differentiate between charities and overtly partisan advocacy organizations. Now neither type of group must reveal the names of its supporters.

He argues that the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling makes it too easy for corporations and wealthy individuals to exert political influence by making unlimited donations to advocacy groups.

The Internal Revenue Service “doesn’t allow tax filers to write off their donations to politicians or parties, because that would mean Republicans would be subsidizing Democratic political efforts, and vice versa,” Mr. Callahan writes. “So why should gifts that often seek the same outcomes through nonprofit organizations be treated differently?”