White nationalist group's tax-exempt status revoked by US (National Policy Institute)

[ABX]

Hard to believe they had tax exempt status and any form of legitimate recognition in the first place but that's how some of these groups work. They create front organizations and websites that seems innocuous to slowly spread their message and influence.

The U.S. government has revoked the tax-exempt status of a group run by prominent white nationalist Richard Spencer for its failure to file tax returns.

Internal Revenue Service records show Spencer's National Policy Institute automatically lost its tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit after failing to file tax returns for three consecutive years.....

https://www.yahoo.com/news/irs-revokes-white-nationalist-groups-tax-exempt-status-150808607.html

[DiogenesLamp]

Hard to believe they had tax exempt status and any form of legitimate recognition in the first place but that's how some of these groups work. They create front organizations and websites that seems innocuous to slowly spread their message and influence.

Not sure what to think about this.   Although I don't like such groups,  I am hard pressed to understand why they should not be treated under the law the same as everybody else. 

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

[txradioguy]

Good!

[DiogenesLamp]

Good!

No philosophical soul searching for you!  You just get right to your emotionally satisfying conclusion with no metaphysical muss or fuss! 

[txradioguy]

No philosophical soul searching for you!  You just get right to your emotionally satisfying conclusion with no metaphysical muss or fuss!

Less confusion about where I stand that way. I prefer to be direct and to the point.

[ABX]

No philosophical soul searching for you!  You just get right to your emotionally satisfying conclusion with no metaphysical muss or fuss!

Translated, he says what he means and he means what he says.

[jmyrlefuller]

Not sure what to think about this.   Although I don't like such groups,  I am hard pressed to understand why they should not be treated under the law the same as everybody else.

They were treated under the law the same as everyone else. It wasn't their white-nationalist platform that lost them their tax-exempt status; it was their not filing taxes for three years.

[DiogenesLamp]

Less confusion about where I stand that way. I prefer to be direct and to the point.

Firing a big gun is great,   but it is more useful to all concerned when it hits an appropriate target.   Do you think that singling out a group for it's ideas which are disliked by a majority is a good policy for a nation that purports to believe in freedom of speech and personal freedom?   


Is it now illegal to be prejudiced?   I can see that backfiring so many different ways.   

[DiogenesLamp]

Translated, he says what he means and he means what he says.

I have no doubt he means it.   I just don't think he's bothered to contemplate the ramifications of doing it that way.   


Shooting from the hip has a greater chance of being a miss,  or worse,  hitting something you didn't want to hit. 

[txradioguy]

I have no doubt he means it.   I just don't think he's bothered to contemplate the ramifications of doing it that way.   


Shooting from the hip has a greater chance of being a miss,  or worse,  hitting something you didn't want to hit.

It's not shooting from the hip...I don't believe that a White Nationalist group should get a tax exempt status any more than I believe a Black Separatist group or La Raza should get it.

Groups like this...or the Klan or BLM foment anger violence hostility and sometimes outright call for the subversion of the U.S. Government and our way of life...no way in hell they should be given 503C status to act like a charity in order to support their hate.

[DiogenesLamp]

They were treated under the law the same as everyone else. It wasn't their white-nationalist platform that lost them their tax-exempt status; it was their not filing taxes for three years.

Then how did their beliefs get into the conversation if it wasn't relevant?    The implication here is obvious;  That the government deliberately targeted them as a result of their beliefs,  and then searched for a technicality  reason to attack them.   


If their tax status was revoked as a result of routine government gear turning,   that's one thing,  but if it was as a result of a "IRS vs. Tea Party"  like assault on their beliefs,  then that is quite another.   


Were they targeted for their beliefs or not?   


It smells like it from what I have so far read. 

[DiogenesLamp]

It's not shooting from the hip...I don't believe that a White Nationalist group should get a tax exempt status any more than I believe a Black Separatist group or La Raza should get it.

But how does this work out in practice?   Does not La Raza,  or the Nation of Islam get this tax exempt status?

Groups like this...or the Klan or BLM foment anger violence hostility and sometimes outright call for the subversion of the U.S. Government and our way of life...no way in hell they should be given 503C status to act like a charity in order to support their hate.

I personally think the tax code is a method of handing out favors by people in power,  so I look down on these sorts of abuses in the tax code anyways.


But I find it troubling that there does not seem to be an objective set of rules to make such decisions.   I know the Tea Party has been suffering from this sort of abuse for the last eight years,  and so we ought to be sensitive to the idea of hostile bureaucrats judging organizations. 


As far as the IRS bureaucrats were concerned,  the "Tea Party"  was a "Hate"  organization. 


Hell,  nowadays being Christian is considered belonging to a "Hate"  organization. 

[Cripplecreek]

They were treated under the law the same as everyone else. It wasn't their white-nationalist platform that lost them their tax-exempt status; it was their not filing taxes for three years.

Yup.

[Cripplecreek]

What amazes me is that they had tax exempt status while the IRS was targeting tea party groups for excessive scrutiny.