Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
This is intriguing. Both the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its affiliated foundation have lost their tax-exempt status after failing to file required annual reports showing their revenues and expenses.
They're among 275,000 tax-exempt organizations purged earlier this month by the IRS.
CAIR's web site still says donations to it are tax-deductible, which is not true unless they ask for and receive reinstatement, explain why they didn't file the paperwork, and file the missing reports.
These IRS Form 990s that are missing would include financial information on donations and other sources of income, operating expenses and names and payments given to directors and key staff members.
CAIR is a media favorite and reporters frequently quote the group regarding anti-Muslim bias. The media rarely mention that the group was named unindicted con-conspirators in a Hamas-financing case. Critics have long wondered whether the group wasn't being floated by Saudi funds. The group has sought funds from the Saudi kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Ben Smith at Politico got mixed explanations from the group:
A CAIR attorney initially told POLITICO that its appearance on the IRS list referred to a defunct arm of the nonprofit, and that CAIR and CAIR foundation were unaffected -- a claim that a review of the IRS documents did not support. CAIR then told POLITICO the IRS was to blame, citing a number of other errors that have occurred on the IRS list. However, CAIR could not produce their IRS disclosure forms for 2007 through 2010 -- which are required to be open for public inspection.
A spokesman told FOX that the group was being targeted:
"This is a technical paperwork issue that we're dealing with with the IRS -- as 275,000 other groups, including the AARP and major universities," Hooper said, before suggesting that reporting on its lost status was part of an effort to spread anti-Muslim "hate."
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
If it's true, will it stand?
Re: Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
I think the trick will be filing accurate reports from the previous three years. If it really was just a monumentally idiotic mess-up and they've kept good records and what not, it should be easy.
I wonder, though, about that overseas funding and whether it might not be worth it for them to just lose the status. Their membership income had been declining prior to the missing records anyway.
Jun '10
Re: Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
A few years ago I purchased a large hard plastic storage container for my back yard. It was made of seven interlocking pieces. Unfortunately we decided to store some bird seed in it and after a few months we noticed some rat droppings inside. Well, I had to disassemble the whole thing and thoroughly clean it out. I've left it disassembled and open to the sunlight so the rats can no longer nest in it. I'm not sure exactly why this story comes to mind at the moment.
Oct '10
Re: Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
And this really serves what ?
Jul '10
Re: Council on American-Islamic Relations Loses Tax Status
Three... no... make that: One Cheer for the IRS!