IRS Tea Party/912 Alert: ACLJ Offering Free Legal Assistance

The IRS at the behest of several Democrat Senators and the Obama Administration is harassing Tea Parties around the Country. The ACLJ is offerig  free legal help see below:

Dear Friends,

As many of you already know the ACLJ has agreed to represent tea party and 912 groups who have received letters from the IRS demanding information that we believe are violations of our first amendment rights.  Please pass this message on to others who are tea party/012/liberty group leaders (officers of the organization) and may not know or understand how important this issue is to the movement.  If you need more information about why we and the ACLJ feel the IRS has over-reached their powers please read this short blog on the ACLJ website (CLICK HERE) or scroll to the bottom of this email and read more.

There will be a conference call Tuesday, March 13th at 9:00 Eastern time for organizers/leaders.  An ACLJ representative will be on the call to answer any questions.  If you can not make the call, and your group has received a letter from the IRS that is asking for information not permitted or is onerous, please read this note from the Miles at the ACLJ:

We need any TEA Party/Liberty/Conservative Group that is either a 501(c)4 or 501(c)3 that has gotten a letter from the IRS asking for lots of additional information to follow the instructions below to contact the ACLJ so that they can represent them against the IRS at NO CHARGE to the group.  Furthermore, if a group has filed a 1024 application and has not yet received a letter from the IRS, they should also contact the ACLJ immediately. Please have the group scan their 1024 application and the letter they received from the IRS, if any, to Miles Terry at the email address below who will then confirm receipt and provide additional instructions:

Miles Terry,

Associate Counsel

ACLJ

[email protected].  

AGENDA:

ACLJ: How to get representation in this matter

Tom & Toby: How to get your Congressman/woman involved

Eric: How to engage your email list/contacts to assist

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO BE ON THE CONFERENCE CALL. We hope to keep this call to under one hour.

Please do not share the call in credentials with others, ask them to sign up for the call at this link: CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP.  An email will go out tomorrow afternoon with the call in number and password. 

Other items to note:

***The ACLJ has a petition on their website to urge Congress for investigations and hearings.  Please sign the petition today, and share it with your friends and contacts.  CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION.

***Congressman Bill Flores has asked for Congressional Hearings/Investigations and has written a letter to the head of the IRS.  Please ask your Congressman to join him in the requests for more information.  And if you have a moment, please call Congressman Flores’s office and thank him, his office needs to hear from people who support his call for a hearing: 202-225-6105).  CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER TO CHAIRMAN ISSA AND THE IRS.

***The House Ways and Means Committee Sub Committee Chairman, Charles Boustany (R-LA) is also demanding answers from the IRS for what appears to be an over reach of their powers.  CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER TO THE IRS FROM WAYS AND MEANS.

As you can see, the groundwork is being laid to fight back, we must reach every grassroots leader that has received these letters and ask them to join us.  If you are a organizer/leader of a group and do not know if you have received a letter, make sure you ask your accountant and/or treasurer.  The ACLJ is offering to represent them pro bono, FREE in this matter.

We must stand united in this effort, help each other, support each other, and engage citizens in this issue.  If not now, when?  If not us, who?

Join us on this important call, Tuesday, March 13th at 9:00 PM Eastern.

From the Jay Sekulow on the ACLJ Website:

It is outrageous.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is demanding information from Tea Party groups nationwide – information that is clearly beyond the scope of legitimate inquiries – information that violates the First Amendment.

As we have already told you this week, we’ve been contacted by dozens of Tea Party groups that are facing what can only be described as an intimidation campaign – an IRS demand that the groups provide information about the internal workings of their organizations – questions that are simply out of bounds. Questions like: How do you choose your members? What’s their background? Who do they associate with? What do they discuss?

Take a look at some of these problematic questions for yourself. We’ve posted some of the most egregious questions taken directly from several of the IRS information demands. They are posted here. I want you to know we are moving forward aggressively. We now represent nearly 20 Tea Party groups nationwide and have put the IRS on notice concerning our representation.

And, in just two days, we’ve already seen more than 30,000 Americans sign on to our petition demanding that Congress conduct oversight hearings on this IRS action. We believe Congress needs to get to the bottom of what the IRS is doing. If you haven’t added your name yet, please do so here.

As I told the New York Times, this intimidation campaign is as onerous as what the IRS did to the NAACP in the 1950′s and is simply unacceptable.

Here are the facts. These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades. The problem here is the IRS has gone beyond legitimate inquiries and is demanding that these organizations answer questions that actually violate their First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of association.

The IRS information demands sent to the Tea Party groups are not in response to complaints of wrongdoing, but instead in response to applications by the organizations for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. The IRS certainly has the authority to request certain information when processing applications for tax exempt status. But the truth here is this goes far beyond that legitimate purpose.