New Posts

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

read in full
Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

read in full
Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

read in full
Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

  UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

read in full
more news

Forms and Instructions for LD-203 Released

BNA Money and Politics ($$) reports that forms and instructions for the new lobbying disclosure form, LD-203, have been released. Lobbyists and their organizations, as mandated under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, will have to detail the amount of campaign contributions and other payments linked to lawmakers. The new disclosure form will have to be filed twice a year, first filing deadline is July 30, 2008. The forms that lobbyists and lobbying organizations must fill out have menus calling for reporting of four types of contributions or payments:

    read in full

    TIGTA Releases Audit of Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI)

    The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has released an audit report addressing improvements in educating and enforcing the prohibition against political activities for tax-exempt organizations. The purpose of the audit was to determine the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Political Activities Compliance Initiative (the Initiative). The audit addressed how effective the IRS is in addressing alleged incidences of political campaign intervention and "whether actions had detected repeated campaign intervention by previously identified organizations."

    read in full

    Internet Evangelist Ready to Challenge IRS Investigation

    In June of last year, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigate Bill Keller for possibly violating the political campaign intervention prohibition for tax exempt organizations. Keller has a call-in show on a Tampa television station and a Web site called Liveprayer.com. On May 11, 2007 Keller warned listeners; "if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!" Now, the public is aware that the IRS is in fact investigating the case. According to the St.

    read in full

    Nonprofits See Election Year Opportunity

    The Chronicle of Philanthropy ($$) has an interesting article on how nonprofits are utilizing the excitement of this election season.

    read in full

    All FEC Nominees Finally Confirmed

    By unanimous consent, the Senate finally approved five members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). After the new members are sworn in, the agency will be back to full working order, and should be very busy. CQ Politics reports; "After months of squabbling over new members for the Federal Election Commission, the Senate confirmed five new officials Tuesday with little fanfare, putting the long-defunct commission back in working order. . . .

    read in full

    Yes, Nonprofits Should Lobby

    The current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy ($$) has an opinion piece titled " How to Guarantee Respect for Public-Interest Lobbyists." It addresses some of the negative consequences of the growing disdain towards lobbyists that has led to the presidential candidates' public purge of any such connections. In response, "to restore public faith in democracy, nonprofit groups need to do even more lobbying and advocacy.

    read in full

    September Argument Set In NAM Appeal

    The National Association of Manufacturers' (NAM) challenge to a new member disclosure law was dismissed on April 11, followed by both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to grant a stay pending appeal. Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has scheduled an oral argument for Sept. 12 with a decision expected weeks or months after the argument date.

    read in full

    VA's Ban on Voter Registration Drives Questioned in Court

    According to an Alternet article, an attorney for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), "told a federal appeals court Thursday that the VA could not conceive of any circumstance where voter registration drives could occur at its facilities." For the most part the atrocious decision to ban registration drives at VA facilities has largely been absent from major newspapers, but the New York Times has now covered the recent federal appeals court hearing.

    read in full

    ABA Tax Section Offers Recommendations for IRS Guidance Priority List

    The American Bar Association Section of Taxation recommended guidance to be included in the 2008-2009 Treasury Department Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidance priority list. The section asked for guidance in a range of practice areas including exempt organizations.

    read in full

    New Study on Citizen Engagement

    The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) has released a very interesting new study titled, "Communicating with Congress How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement." It reports on the results of survey research with over 10,000 citizens about their correspondence with Congress. A CMF press release highlights that nearly 100 million adult Americans contacted Congress in the last five years. With consequences for citizens, Congress, and advocacy organizations, the study provides a lot of valuable information.

    read in full

    Pages

    Resources & Research

    Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

    People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

    read in full

    A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

    The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

    read in full
    more resources