It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
someone some where will have to pay, or your roads will be in ruins.
who ever ends up paying has lost something, if you cant use your roads you have also lost something.
yes your correct that it gets spent,
but instead of being spent helping the community (tax exempt is for the public benefit) it is spent in the private interest of a political objective for the personal benefit of a candidate.
they are not the same.
even if i use the money i saved in taxes to post,
"tea parties are for little girls" posters everywhere? lol
dont you see it becomes the person with the most money will win,
not the guy or gal with the best vision for the future.
OK, fair enough... but what in the blue hell does that have to do with your initial ascertation that the TEA Party provides no benefit to the avergae tax payer and fails to meet the criteria you're pushing as being needed to qualify as a tax exempt group?
Listen man (and don't take this as a hit because it is just an observation) there are some clear cut indication of personal bias and the agenda you're working in your posts in this thread.
1. Rail against the TEA Party, but swift to defend Occupy Wall Street.
2. Attempt to divert the conversation away from the legitimacy of personal tax burdens and refocus on larger, more populist targets like (deep, menacing voice) CORPORATE AMERICA and CONSERVATIVE PACS. (Kinda surprised you haven't hammered home a cursory Koch Bros. indictment yet)
3. You are completely ambivalent to any rip against a non-Conservative tax free entity... quickly redirecting the conversation with an empathetic "I feel for you, but..." followed by clear indications that you're providing lip service but certainly want the focused outrage to remain solely on the Conservative groups.
I'd argue that your OP is biased.
EVERYONE else pays…including ALL for-profit businesses. It’s very difficult to become 501c and there aren’t as many as you might think in comparison to other businesses. It’s much more difficult and time consuming to run also (your minutes had better be spot on and every penny accounted for…or else).
And AGAIN, we made it just fine before the non-profit was formed!!
All businesses and people who get the money are IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR!
Do you think there is some big non-profit pool that the rich throw money into and divvy up amongst themselves when we’re not looking?
Good luck getting that business plan approved!
The little bit in tax savings isn’t making the difference in the money game. Most nonprofits don’t even show enough profit to be effected by federal taxes anyway…they spend the money and show little to no profit.
Originally posted by XPLodER
was trying to point out where you tax money is going, ie subsidising apple in their cayman islands head office
and that if you were really pissed at paying high taxes you could at least be mad at the correct groups,
your miss directed anger would be more helpful if directed at the real problem,
23 trillion in tax havens, and VERY FEW ARE SMALL BUSINESS, no deflection just redirection
I'm not the first in this thread to say this, but that is a very liberal progressive view on taxation... that if there's a corporate group which isn't paying their (always moving goalpost, ever changing definition) "fair share" they are somehow more responsible for "screwing" those of us who pay a net total in taxes than are those who are a net drain on the accounts tax dollars are placed in.
You're not trying to point out where anyone's tax money is "going", you're trying to point out more sources of additional tax dollars.
There's a massive difference between the two. My tax money is going for horsecrap like millitary aid to Syrian rebels, neverending unemployemnt checks, subsidized living expenses for nearly half the damn nation, endless wars in the desert, legal battles against our Constitutional rights, security for lavish parties and tax payer funded vacations for the Obamas, border wars we aren't even trying to win, and a whole slew of other pointless and insulting expenses I and other workers are expected to foot the bill for while half the nation yells at me to search deeper in my pockets for just a little more pain to help fund the machine.
It is a crock of crap. But yeah, let's feign anger at the ones who pay the most but "aren't paying enough" while ignoring the leeches. That'll certainly make things better!
Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by XPLodER
Would you feel the same way about OWS? They were granted tax-exempt status as well, yet they were not investigated by the IRS.
Reuters has obtained part of a yet to be released report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) that confirms that the IRS was targeting groups on the left and right who focused their activities on advocating for expanding or limiting of the size of the government. The report also states that the screening process was not influenced by the Obama administration, and that none of the groups screened were denied tax exempt status.
THE REAL I.R.S. SCANDAL
So the scandal—the real scandal—is that 501(c)(4) groups have been engaged in political activity in such a sustained and open way. As Fred Wertheimer, the President of Democracy 21, a government-ethics watchdog group, put it, “it is clear that a number of groups have improperly claimed tax-exempt status as section 501(c)(4) ‘social welfare’ organizations in order to hide the donors who financed their campaign activities in the 2010 and 2012 federal elections.”
Some people in the I.R.S. field office in Cincinnati took the names of certain groups—names that included the terms “Tea Party” and “patriot,” among others, which tend to signal conservatism—as signals that they might not be engaged in “social welfare” operations. Rather, the I.R.S. employees thought that these groups might be doing explicit politics—which would disqualify them for 501(c)(4) status, and set them aside for closer examination. This appears to have been a pretty reasonable assumption on the part of the I.R.S. employees: having “Tea Party” in your name is at least a slight clue about partisanship. When the inspector-general report becomes public, we’ll surely learn the identity of these organizations. How many will look like “social welfare” organizations—and how many will look like political activists looking for anonymity and tax breaks? My guess is a lot more of the latter than the former.
The fact is that the law says that as long as the funds, the 501(c)(4)s do not use as the primary purpose politics but instead promoting social well being, welfare. Well, that's what primary purpose means, could be the secondary purpose. And here's what I'm calling for: As we look at this and we should, and I think it's very wrong that they would have targeted them, we should be saying what are these groups? Let's have transparency, disclosure. Who are these contributors, a.? B., Let's have accountability for what it is. This is a very vague law, let's bring a clear definition of what a 501(c)(4) -- is that somebody could give them money and they don't have to pay taxes on it.
Originally posted by Pladuim
So specifically targeting conservative groups is excusable under this guise your trying to spread? How can you not see that this was a total abuse of power? This thread is just a lousy attemp to save the credibility of the IRS and the democrats behind the scandal.
Pladuim
alot of people think the IRS scandle is about "unfair" investigations into Tea Party Groups, its not, the real scandle is that groups that want to engage in political enterprises are attempting to EXPLOIT a tax loop hole
Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. Read more: dailycaller.com...
According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval. Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization. Read more: dailycaller.com...
A charity organization founded by President Barack Obama's half brother is raising eyebrows, prompting one watchdog group to file a request for an official investigation