Political Advocacy Groups Denied Tax-Exempt Status

By STEPHANIE STROM
NYT

Three nonprofit advocacy groups that recruited and trained potential political candidates in the last several years have been denied tax exemption by the Internal Revenue Service.

Copies of the letters informing the groups of the decisions were heavily redacted by the I.R.S. when it released them last week, so it was impossible to know the names of the organizations involved, or which political party they might have worked with.

“You are not operated primarily to promote social welfare because your activities are primarily for the benefit of a political party and a private group of individuals, rather than the community as a whole,” the I.R.S. wrote in the letters. “Accordingly, you do not qualify for exemption.”

Word of the decisions has been circulating this week, especially among lawyers who advise these types of nonprofits because they have become more prominent in political elections.

(More here.)