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Advocacy Blog
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Be Careful What You Link To
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released a memorandum for exempt organization (EO) revenue agents detailing how they should examine cases involving allegations of political activity on the Internet as part of the Political Activity Compliance Initiative (PACI). For example, in figuring out whether an exempt group is engaging in prohibited political activity, the IRS agents are to consider the "number of 'clicks' or electronic proximity between an exempt organization and the site of a political message," and "the context of the link is another significant consideration."
As the MSNBC article referenced earlier, the IRS is also concerned with what the Internet means for how easily 501(c)(3) groups can become involved in political activity. The IRS memo states; "Experience indicates that there are numerous cases involving potential political campaign intervention in the form of communications posted on Web sites operated by section 501(c)(3) organizations. Many of these communications include links to Web sites of other organizations."
In February the IRS warned 501(c)(3) organization about linking to other websites that may be considered partisan if the links indicate support or opposition for candidates. The memo discusses cases of linking to unrelated organizations and linking to related organizations, such as a related 501(c)(4). The IRS will continue to rely on the "facts and circumstances" test.
"EO will pursue the case if the facts and circumstances indicate that the section 501(c)(3) organization is promoting, encouraging, recommending or otherwise urging viewers to use the link to get information about specific candidates and their positions on specific issues. Again, analysis of the context around the link is a key factor."
[T]here are situations where a section 501(c)(3) organization itself (1) takes a position on an issue, and (2) provides information about candidate positions on the same issue, placing the organization at risk of having intervened in a political campaign. The risk arises, and the case should be pursued, even if the two elements are in separate parts of the organization's Web site, or if one element is on the Web site and the other is not.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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