House to vote on reigning in IRS this week

This week, the House of Representatives will vote on legislation, the Fair Treatment for All Donations Act (HR 1104). HR 1104  stops the IRS from discriminating against groups like Campaign for Liberty in its application of the “gift tax” rules.

Campaign for Liberty recently signed a coalition letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan in support of action on this legislation, letter text is available here and below:

 Hon. Paul Ryan, Chairman
House Ways and Means Committee
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(By Electronic Mail)
Re: Support for HR 1104, The Fair Treatment for All Donations Act

Dear Chairman Ryan:

We are a group of free-market and limited-government organizations writing to you in support of HR 1104, the “Fair Treatment for All Donations Act”. For nearly a half-century, the public has been aware of the potential power the Internal Revenue Service holds within the political process. In fact, the partisan use of the IRS led to the curtailment of the agency’s powers, and subjected it to immense congressional scrutiny. But as our groups are keenly well-aware, that scrutiny and those limitations are not preventing the IRS from being used as a tool to silence political
speech and harass donors to organizations that are (or could be) critical of the current administration.

While most people are familiar with the ongoing saga of the IRS’ role in targeting conservative and libertarian organizations, few are familiar with the agency’s use of the so-called “gift tax” in putting donors to these organizations under scrutiny. While using gift tax rules with regards to donations to research and education (501C3) organizations, as well as public policy advocacy organizations (501C4s) has been something the IRS has asserted since the 1980s, it is clear from the underlying legislation that this is interpretive overreach by the agency.
The problem is clear: right now, supporters of organizations doing necessary research,
education, and advocacy into the nation’s most tenacious public policy problems are
finding themselves being punished by the IRS via its misinterpretation of the gift tax.
Worse, the IRS is disproportionately singling out donors to organizations engaging in
research, education, and advocacy that presents a necessary (and constitutionallyprotected)
counterpoint to the administration’s effort to concentrate power in the federal
executive branch and grow that power.

HR 1104 is a necessary tool to reining in the IRS’ power. We urge its passage out of committee.

Sincerely,

Andrew Langer, President Institute for Liberty
Grover Norquist, President Americans for Tax Reform
Morton Blackwell, Chairman The Weyrich Lunch
JennyBeth Martin, President Tea Party Patriots
John Tate, President Campaign for Liberty
Nena Whitfield, Executive Director Ladies of Liberty Alliance
Gary L. Bauer, President American Values
George Landrith, President Frontiers of Freedom
Jerry Rogers, President  Six Degrees
Richard Manning, President Americans for Limited Government
Penny Nance, CEO and President Concerned Women for America Legislative Action
William H. Shaker, President Rule of Law Committee
Seton Motley, President Less Government
Melissa Ortiz, Founder & Principal Able Americans
Curt Levey, President Committee For Justice
Rusty Weiss, New York Political Analyst
Editor at Mental Recession
Jim Simpson, Freelance Journalist