U.S. Rep Dave Camp (R-Midland), Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means today released a public letter he sent to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demanding information about its recent investigation into certain donations to non-profit organizations and the agency’s apparent drive to impose gift taxes on these monies. 

In the letter Camp questioned the process leading up to this action and level of involvement by the Obama Administration. “The IRS must explain its actions or risk creating a chilling effect that threatens not only political advocacy groups, but all tax-exempt organizations that depend on contributions from individual donors,” he wrote.

Recent media reports suggest this IRS enforcement action targets five individual donors that made contributions to what are called “501(c)(4)” organizations, which are named for the section of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) under which they were created.  These tax-exempt organizations are allowed to engage in political activities.

The gift tax, currently a 35 percent rate that applies to sums given by people in excess of $13,000 per year, has not generally been assessed on donations to 501(c)(4) entities.  While case law is unsettled on the matter, the IRS has refused to issue guidance on the matter in nearly thirty years – leading both donors and non-profits to believe gift taxes may not apply. 

“With more than 120,000 501(c)(4) organizations in operation across the United States, this sudden, unexplained enforcement by the IRS raises great uncertainty for both donors and these organizations,” Camp added.  “As a defender of taxpayers and Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, it is my obligation to conduct the necessary and proper oversight of the IRS to get to the bottom of this issue.”

The IRS is expected to begin providing the requested items later this month.