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Playing Devil's Advocate: The Constitutional Implications Of Requiring Advocacy Organizations To Present Opposing Viewpoints, James A. Reed
Playing Devil's Advocate: The Constitutional Implications Of Requiring Advocacy Organizations To Present Opposing Viewpoints, James A. Reed
Alex Reed
The accompanying article examines the constitutionality of an I.R.S. policy that requires advocacy organizations to present opposing viewpoints in their public presentations if they wish to be afforded charitable status under the Internal Revenue Code. For almost a century, Treasury and the I.R.S. have struggled to formulate a set of criteria capable of differentiating educational advocacy organizations from mere propaganda groups. In furtherance of this end, the Service has published four factors ostensibly indicative of a non-educational methodology such that the presence of one or more of these factors in an advocacy organization’s presentations will result in the denial of …
Subsidizing Hate: A Proposal To Reform The Internal Revenue Service's Methodology Test, James A. Reed
Subsidizing Hate: A Proposal To Reform The Internal Revenue Service's Methodology Test, James A. Reed
Alex Reed
Although a wide variety of organizations may qualify as tax-exempt public charities, reform is needed to ensure that hate groups masquerading as educational organizations do not receive preferential tax treatment. Since 1986, the Internal Revenue Service has utilized a methodology test to determine when advocacy of a particular viewpoint may be deemed educational so as to qualify the underlying organization as a public charity. Because the Service has been reluctant to apply the test rigorously, however, a number of hate groups have been able to obtain charitable status under the guise of operating as legitimate educational organizations. This Article argues …