NAACP to defy ‘politically motivated’ IRS investigation

PAGE TOOLS
	send-to-friend print-friendly version add to my morning paper respond to editors / author increase type size decrease type size

Feb 2 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced earlier this week that it will not comply with an Internal Revenue Service investigation into its tax-exempt activities. Leaders of the civil rights organization raised the counter-allegation that the IRS probe is a politically motivated attempt to impede get-out-the-vote campaigns targeting the black community.

The IRS investigation was initiated in October when the agency sent a request to the NAACP for the text of a speech given by the group’s chairman, Julian Bond, at the organization’s annual convention, along with other documents. The IRS has said that it believes statements critical of President Bush during that speech may have represented a violation of the prohibition against some political activity placed on federally recognized nonprofit organizations as a condition of their tax-exempt status.

Last week, the NAACP sent a letter to the IRS defending Bond’s comments, insisting they were "consistent with the organization’s long-standing practice of advocating positions in the interest of minorities in the United States without regard to election cycles."

In a press statement about their refusal to comply, NAACP Interim President Dennis Hayes said the probe "was clearly motivated by partisan politics and intended to divert us from the traditional, impartial voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities we’ve carried on for almost 100 years."

In his own defense, Bond said, "We've criticized, condemned and/or praised every President since Theodore Roosevelt, and we'll continue to speak truth to power."

Hayes added: "The NAACP’s right to criticize public officials cannot be discarded because of political pressures. We will fight with all our energy to preserve this right for ourselves -- and for all Americans."

For its part, the IRS has maintained that its auditors did not single out the NAACP for political reasons.

"We sent letters to twenty non-church organizations between August 31 and November 2, 2004," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson told the Washington Post. "A review of the names of those organizations indicates that the group represents a broad cross-section of the tax-exempt community and a wide range of viewpoints."
--NewStandard Staff