IRS Grants Nonprofit Status to ‘Dark Money’ Group Founded by Karl Rove

[n2doc]

Crossroads GPS gets declared a nonprofit five years after applying, meaning that its donor list can remain private.
by Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis

Donors to the nonprofit group Crossroads GPS, founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove, no longer have to worry about their identities being disclosed. After a five-year wait, the IRS has approved the organization’s application for tax-exempt status.

Crossroads had been the most active of the nonprofits that are funneling cash into politics — often called dark money because the original source of the funds may be kept secret if the organizations have social welfare as their primary purpose. During the 2012 cycle, Crossroads reported spending almost twice as much on political ads as the next most-active nonprofit, Americans for Prosperity, which is backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

So far, during the 2016 cycle, the Rove group seems to be dormant. It has not filed any reports with the Federal Election Commission since January 2015, and has not reported any TV ad spending with the Federal Communications Commission. During the 2012 campaign, the group didn’t start spending on TV ads until July, after Mitt Romney had locked up the GOP nomination.

The IRS decision on Crossroads came in November but was first reported today by the Center for Responsive Politics. Unless new facts arise or circumstances change, past, present and future donors to the Rove group can now feel assured that they will remain anonymous. That gives Crossroads a leg up over other dark money groups that lack IRS approval and could be vulnerable to having that status challenged by the federal government at any time.

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https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-grants-nonprofit-status-to-dark-money-group

[mpcamb]

1. A big problem for the IRS has been underfunding. More and more they have to pick and choose

their battles. They lost 18,000 employees a year or two back, so they're less willing and less able to get into protracted court fights or cases that use a huge number of employee hours.
Can't give a reference right now, but they, the IRS, are trying to have no more taxpayer-to-agent access. This is a big disservice to small timers who need a clarification, but a boon to moneybags-types with accountants and lawyers to defend their deductions.
So, the underfunding by a do-nothing congress was no accident or unintended result.
One of the ways for the US to get a more equitable tax situation is to fund the people who chase heavy- hitting tax cheats.