August 23, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Several prominent lawyers who specialize in nonprofit issues are calling on the Internal Revenue Service to be clearer about the types of political discussions charities may participate in — and the ones they must avoid — before the 2008 election intensifies.
The IRS has been cracking down on nonprofit groups that might have illegally enaged in partisan politics, opening investigations into more than 350 nonprofit organizations related to their activities during the 2006 election cycle.
But panelists at a recent forum organized by OMB Watch, a Washington advocacy group, said the tax agency’s increased enforcement is stifling legitimate political discussions by nonprofit groups because the agency has yet to offer clear definitions about what is off-limits.
“We really don’t know how to comply with the ban on partisan political activities,” said Kay Guinane, director of OMB Watch’s Nonprofit Speech Rights Program. “The uncertainty surrounding these rules makes our job difficult.”
Federal law prohibits religious congregations and other nonprofit groups from participating in partisan political campaigns in support of, or in opposition to, candidates for public office. Groups that violate the law run the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
IRS officials have said they have seen a sharp increase in complaints about possible partisan activities since the 2004 election. In turn, the agency has started an internal effort to patrol such abuse more aggressively.
But as the tax agency investigates more organizations for possible illegal activity, critics say it is snaring potentially innocent groups because it uses a hard-to-interpret set of guidelines to determine whether a charity is crossing the line.
