Political Organizations: Data Disclosure and IRS's Oversight of Organizations Should Be Improved

Tom Short · Kerry Gail Dunn

dec. 2002 · DIANE Publishing

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Certain tax-exempt organizations seeking to influence political elections called Section 527 organizations-are estimated to annually spend hundreds of millions of dollars. In federal elections, these organizations have been able to use unregulated "soft money" for indirect or "issue advocacy," such as that conducted when an organization sponsors an advertisement that supports or opposes a candidate's position on an issue. Although all states required these organizations to provide some type of data on their finances and activities to the public, no central source provided such data. In July 2000, Congress passed P.L. 106-230 to require Section 527 organizations to provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with data on their purposes, officers, contributors, and expenses. Congress established tight time frames for reporting these data to IRS and the law, or implementing regulations, calls for IRS to then disclose these data to the public. You asked us to study three related issues associated with responsibilities IRS gained in P.L. 106-230. Given the requirements of P.L. 106-230, our objectives were to determine the extent to which IRS (1) discloses to the public in an accessible manner the data that Section 527 organizations file with IRS, (2) oversees Section 527 organizations' compliance with the specified filing requirements, and (3) develops a strategic plan for carrying out its new responsibilities. To meet these objectives, we reviewed P.L. 106-230 and relevant Internal Revenue Code rulings on Section 527 political organizations. We interviewed responsible IRS officials and obtained documentation about processes, plans, and initiatives for disclosure and oversight related to Section 527 organizations. We also interviewed officials at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which publicly discloses data about federal election activities, to understand the shmlarities and differences in disclosure and oversight processes between FEC and IRS.