CBS News reports that their News Investigation uncovered reports of alleged "hate groups" receiving tax breaks under the guise of being registered charities. CBS discovered there are 90 various groups that have been perceived as "hate groups" who are registered as tax-exempt charities with the IRS. These groups include known White supremacist, anti-immigration, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ groups. Some examples of a couple groups included on the IRS' tax exempt list are Identity Evropa, one of the groups involved in the Unite the Right deadly rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. At the Unite the Right rally, alleged "White supremacist" groups clashed with counter protesters prompting one member of the Unite the Right rally to take a car and drive it into a crowd of counter protesters killing at least one person and injuring many others. Additionally, another group on the IRS' tax exempt list is the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that was linked and believed to inspire white supremacist Dylann Roof to open fire on a Charleston church in 2015, killing nine Black church members. The list goes on and you can search and confirm more of these tax exemptions for various alleged "hate groups", HERE.
From what I gathered, it is apparently not very difficult to become a charitable organization and receive tax breaks. According to the IRS' data, about more than 100,000 applications were filed by organizations seeking tax exemptions and of those applications only 66 were rejected...
A little background here on what it means to be a tax deductible charity:
- Your organization does not have to pay federal taxes
- In many cases you do not have to pay property taxes
- Any contributions to your charity/organization from donors are tax deductible
In other words you get special treatment that allows you to practice or engage in your own private interest as part of a growing organization no matter what your belief is that may or may not be "hateful", "racist", and "inflammatory" due to the fact that you fall under the guise of being a deemed the magical term of "charity". Charity means you are protected so when you get that status and find a way to prove you are "giving back", you get away with raising money and using it to advance your beliefs without having to pay taxes for operating.
In the past the IRS has revoked tax exempt status for some organizations who are actively practicing segregation or promoting acts of violence. You would think some of these alleged "hate groups" would qualify for a revoked tax exempt status but the problem is they have somehow flown under the radar and now they are just being brought to light.
With all this information known, what should be done with these alleged "hate groups" receiving tax exemptions? This is a tough one because you can't just take away someone's status because you don't agree with their beliefs. That should not be the reason to do so but in the same breath, if that group you so happen to not agree with is engaging in violent acts such as the the incident at the Unite the Right rally (if indeed that individual who drove the car into the crowd of protesters was indeed part of the group Identity Evropa) that is something worth evaluating. However the group Identity Evropa could deny they encouraged that behavior of the lone wolf who drove into the crowd despite their strong dislike for the counter protesters. In other words it's very hard to prove that some of these deemed "white supremacist" or "hate groups" are inciting violence and not just an isolated incident from one of your members. You have to have proof they taught this, preached about it, posted about it, etc. and until you do that, these groups will carry on as "charitable organizations". Charities can exist under their beliefs that may be interrupted by some as racist due to First Amendment rights and protections. Overall, I think the whole investigation is fascinating and the findings are worth looking into further to determine if something should be done about revoking some of these alleged "hate groups" charitable status. What do you think?
-Producer Lightning