It is not just 501(c)(3) organizations that are prohibited from engaging in lobbying activities.

In fact, the IRS has already questioned the NAACP’s lobbying activities as a potential violation of it’s tax exempt status. Read this

NAACP Tax Status Questioned

As for your concerns about the erosion of separation of church and state, I don’t see that as a big threat to our people or our constitution. In fact, I think it’s a red herring thrown out there by those who oppose religion in general.

Separation of church and state does not mean that the church cannot influence politics. The first amendment ensures that it can.

The founders concerns went in the other direction: They didn’t want the government establishing a national religion.

Pastors, Priests, Rabbis and Imams have personal views about public policy and their views are no less entitled to expression than are the views of a secular person.

Having said that, I do agree that organizations that are subsidized by the government (especially Churches) through the grant of tax-exempt status be prohibited from engaging in lobbying activities.

The thing that bothers me the most is that when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s and 70s there was a clear separation between church and state. As the evangelicals have deliberately moved into politics, that distinction is under attack. We’ve now got tax money going to “faith based” organizations and even Obama supports that… the Bill of Rights seems to be disappearing at an amazing rate, with very little concern by anyone.

They outta guilliotine this dude.

But seriously, controversy gets attention and that’s all this nutmouth is trying to do.

As for tax-exempts doing illegal lobbying, why don’t we start with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and the NAACP. Does anyone really believe these are politically neutral organizations?

This was a fascinating read. When you say that the organization could be under scrutiny by the IRS – does that mean that it could lose its tax exempt status? Or could be fined? What are the potential consequences of this type of abuse?

Thanks for the informative article – and the eye catching title that brought me here!!

Liz

Quite right. But Jesus did call Herod “that fox.” (Luke 13:32). Happily, this issue wasn’t a problem for him because (1) he wasn’t taking tax deductible contributions and (2) Herod wasn’t running for anything . . . .

One little quibble. The above is true for 501(c)(3) organizations, but 501(c)(4) organizations (also tax exempt) can engage in political campaigns and lobbying, as long as it is not the primary purpose of the organization (facts and circumstances, typically a 50% plus test). The primary difference between the two is that contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations are not deductible.

Coincidentally, Tax Prof Blog today has a link to a concise article on these organizations:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2008/09/aprill-tax-issu.html