Political donors like the Kochs and Soros get letters from the IRS

Political donors like the Kochs and Soros get letters from the IRS

In an online memorandum to clients this week, Ofer Lion, a California lawyer and expert on tax-exempt organizations, includes an excerpt from a Feb. 16 letter from the IRS to an undisclosed donor. The name of the recipient organization is blacked out.

“Your 2008 gift tax return (Form 709) has been assigned to me for examination,” the letter said. “The Internal Revenue Service has received information that you donated cash to (redacted), an IRC Section 501(c)(4) organization. Donations to 501(c)(4) organizations are taxable gifts, and your contribution in 2008 should have been reported on your 2008 Federal Gift Tax Return (Form 709).”

Under the law, the burden for paying the gift tax does not fall on the organizations, but with the donors themselves. ...Washington Post

MORE GOOD NEWS:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/irs-investigating-tax-status-of-donations-to-politically-active-nonprofits/2011/05/12/AFkBgd1G_story.html
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2011/05/political-donors-like-the-kochs-and-soros-get-letters-from-the-irs.html