The NRA Has Some Lessons For SarahPAC On How To Cheat At Campaign Finance
Just One More Reason To Abolish The IRS
The NRA Has Some Lessons For SarahPAC On How To Cheat At Campaign Finance
image: 
America, fuck yeah.
You will probably find this very difficult to believe, but it’s possible that the National Rifle Association is a big lying liar. No, not just about how guns are the only thing standing between freedom and tyranny, or about the how everyone needs a gun to safely get through breakfast, or even about how the Second Amendment was handed down from Jesus so that America would always be God’s favorite country. No, it seems that the NRA may also have lied a whole bunch, for years, to the IRS. And also may have violated several federal campaign finance laws, too. Fortunately, the NRA probably doesn’t have to worry too much — if there’s one organization that’s exempt from following piddly little laws, it’s the NRA, because your average charity doesn’t have a bunch of armed radicals ready to start shooting if they think the feds are going to take their guns away. Which is what making the NRA follow campaign and tax laws would be, you just know it.
Somewhat surprisingly, the great big investigative report on the NRA’s tax and campaign finance shenanigans comes from Yahoo News, which is apparently quite serious about doing Journalism now. It’s worth the time to read Alan Berlow’s terrific investigation of the many ways in which the NRA may be moving money around in violation of federal law. And in a post-Citizens United world, that actually takes some effort!
Needless to say, despite the documentation in the article, this is all just propaganda by the liberal media, which is, as always, trying to make the NRA look bad because they hate freedom.
Oops, Probably Just Forgot To Mention That To The IRS. As we all know, the National Rifle Association is a big ol’ tax-exempt charity organization, and as such, it’s only allowed to do a limited amount of political campaign stuff. Which, under recent court rulings, still allows for a hell of a lot of political activity. And nobody at all is surprised that the NRA has spent millions in recent elections. But here’s the dealio, according to Berlow’s investigation: The NRA has spent a buttload on political activities. Based on its filings with the Federal Elections Commission, more than $34 million between 2007 and 20013. But by some miracle, the NRA also failed to report a cent of that political spending in its annual tax filings with the IRS. And in fact, despite telling the FEC all about its political spending, on tax forms for those years, the NRA just plain checked “No” in the box asking, “Did the organization engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office?”
image: 
Oh, well OK then.
. . . .
As Berlow notes, the NRA’s campaign spending was all legal — but it was also supposed to be reported to the IRS. And of the top 25 “charitable organizations” that spent enormous amounts in the 2012 election cycle, the NRA was the only one that didn’t report its spending, apparently secure in the knowledge that if the IRS tried to do anything about it, the Second Amendment allows the NRA to shoot them. Oh, also, since some campaign spending by nonprofit groups actually is taxable, it’s likely that, based on internal NRA reports Berlow obtained, the group might have avoided paying $600,000 in taxes on its 2012 campaign activities, which is a lot of money, even for the NRA. But hey, can you really put a price on freedom? Haha, of course you can — nobody is in the business of handing out AR-15s for free, except for some churches, as door prizes.
. . . .
Read more at http://wonkette.com/583503/the-nra-has-some-lessons-for-sarahpac-on-how-to-cheat-at-campaign-finance#DOs7lfvltC4Tr1vu.99
