In a heartening display of civic-mindedness, dozens of SCRAPBOOK readers responded to our invitation for tips on which charitable and tax-exempt organizations they think should be audit bait for the IRS. The idea comes from the IRS itself, which last month said that its audits of tax-exempt groups are sometimes prompted by news reports on the groups’ political activities. The IRS commissioner has since assured the chairmen of the relevant House and Senate oversight committees that the IRS does not engage in politically motivated audits. We hope not. And frankly, we have never really believed that politics motivates auditors — they just think it’s fun to watch people sweat.
Judging by the mail we received, many of the readers of this page (you know who you are) agree. Particularly impressive was your willingness to give expansive definitions to the key terms of art, “audit” and “tax-exempt.” Like many Americans, you are not always confident of the fine points of the law, but there are people you want to go after, and you’re sure some piece of the tax code can be used against them.
The most striking lead came from an anonymous tipster who sent glossy color photographs of the van of the Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Omaha, bearing the license plate “Nebraska 7531 Tax Exempt” and ferrying voters to the polls. And not Republican voters, either, as far as we can tell. Actually, all you can see printed on the van is “Moriah Mis — ary B — hurch”; everything else is obscured by the “Clinton Gore 96,” “Nelson U.S. Senate,” and other Democratic posters plastered on the sides of the van. Another anonymous tipster, probably from the Ford Foundation, simply mailed in the relevant page of the SCRAPBOOK, scrawling on it, “Pew Charitable Trusts.”
Popular nominees included the American Association of Retired Persons, Planned Parenthood, the American Bar Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union. But leading the pack was the Sierra Club. Recommendations to audit it — not accompanied by glossy color photographs, alas — came from Cheryl Dempsey, Mike Heatwole, James C. Longford, Charles Muth, John M. Parker, Dennis P. Quinn, and Virginia Randall, among others.
The Children’s Defense Fund ran a close second in the audit sweeps. Margaret E. Morell wrote: “Information on its web site often speaks on behalf of Democratic legislation. The June 1, 1996, ‘Stand for Children’ march was a particularly partisan activity. What ticks me off the most is that the minister of my church jumped wholeheartedly into ‘Stand for Children,’ going off to Washington, D.C., to participate as well as printing CDF propaganda in our newsletter. A Los Angeles Times article said that ‘Marian Wright Edelman capped off the event with a rip-roaring and decidedly partisan speech‘” [emphasis by Margaret, who adds: “If I sound a bit rabid, it’s because I am”].
No, Margaret, just commendably zealous, like many of our correspondents. Come the insurrection, we will be needing some, ahem, auditors, and we no longer have any doubts about filling the slots.
