Politics and the gift tax: The role of noncharitable exempt organizations
Loyola Law School | Faculty Blog:
"The current gift tax treatment of transfers to section 501(c)(4) organizations is an anomaly. Under the Internal Revenue Code, neither transfers to charitable organizations nor transfers to political organizations are subject to the gift tax. Yet, transfers to section 501(c)(4) organizations, which can share features of charities and political organizations, enjoy no such statutory exception. Perhaps the current furor over IRS enforcement of the gift tax for transfers to section 501(c)(4) organizations will impel Congress to do what it should have done long ago and change the law and provide a statutory exception for such transfers. At the same time, as I have suggested in a recent article, Congress could reconsider the disclosure rules applicable to section 501(c)(4) organizations."
