Page 23 - C 4 News Today

Of 051-cs generally and 4s in particular completely opaque. if you look at its report and if you look at the ig report, you look at the reaction of the irs, they go back to, well, these all have to be judged based on facts and circumstances. if you -- if the irs were more transparent and provided clear guidelines, what is it that a 501-c-4 cant do. what is political intervention. what does primary purpose mean? if it laid out those lines in clear public forum, then the groups that want to doing ...

Sure that these groups arent abusing the tax laws. >> it is -- i mean, there were -- we have a case of progressive group that lost the 501-c-4 status. the only group we know really was kind of singled out by the criteria. you can argue logical reasons for doing so but it was conservative groups disprorgs at at least as far as we know. >> also, the criteria said that any group that had expanded -- one advocate of the expansion of government which is pretty much going to be a liberal group. nobody...

In to the political system, the key was that they are consumers and shareholders would know about it and use their free speech to check the free speech. it is -- really indicating a premarket. >> instead what we are hearing is some of the speakers wanting to take the benefit of their new rights to speak directly to influence american voters but without any of the accountability we have in our political system set up as you said candidates -- contributors to candidates are disclosed. $200 on the ...

I dont know they change anybodys votes. >> i think the big question is super pacs at least -- acknowledge that they are political action committees and disclose their donors. what we have seen with some of these c-4 groups is that they are applying to the irs for c-4 stat us and applications say we are not going to spend money onful particulars. a group that said as they were mailing their application for the irs, not spending money on politics, already up and running ads in nevada and florida. ...

Three years. it was about 19 months when things were going back and forth for too long. >> sean: i stand corrected. i apologize. tell us what happened in your case? >> well, we applied for a 501-c-4. family talk is on 1100 stations around the country and we are all over the internet and so we started the organization and its purpose is very much the same as what i have is done for over 30 years having to do with family life and parenting and so on. and we applied for the 501 c 4. we already had ...

Three years. it was about 19 months when things were going back and forth for too long. >> sean: i stand corrected. i apologize. tell us what happened in your case? >> well, we applied for a 501-c-4. family talk is on 1100 stations around the country and we are all over the internet and so we started the organization and its purpose is very much the same as what i have is done for over 30 years having to do with family life and parenting and so on. and we applied for the 501 c 4. we already had ...

Three years. it was about 19 months when things were going back and forth for too long. >> sean: i stand corrected. i apologize. tell us what happened in your case? >> well, we applied for a 501-c-4. family talk is on 1100 stations around the country and we are all over the internet and so we started the organization and its purpose is very much the same as what i have is done for over 30 years having to do with family life and parenting and so on. and we applied for the 501 c 4. we already had ...

Congressionals coming in and talking about that. >> and did you learn that from the press or inquiries from >>know.s? could have been either, came up in a meeting and then it hit the press, and so i dont know. >> in any event, after learning of the information in the audit, what steps did you take? >> we investigated what happened. we took a look, and ultimately i issued a directive that said ta the law in the aarea was not cl. we had not been enforcing in the area substantially since the period...

Time. i was told there was a use of the list. the list seemed obnoxious to us as it does to you. >> okay. >> and we were going to take actions on that. that was in may. >> and you say, it was not targeting but why was only one side of the political spectrum was singled out in this? >> look what happened, they get 70,000 applications in there for 150 or 200 people to do. they, triaged those. people look at them and they send them either through the system because theyre okay into a mix of folks s...

Were press accounts and congressionals coming in talking about that. >> and did you learn that from the press or did you learn that? >> i dont know. it could have been either. it came up in a meeting and then it hit the press. i dont know. >> in any event after learning of that information of the audits what steps did you take? >> we investigated what happened. we took a look. and ultimately i issued a directive that said the law in the area was not that clear. that we had not been enforcing in ...