NAACP Finds Bond Speech Quite Taxing

During last year's NAACP convention, Julian Bond gave a speech in which he was quite critcal of President and then candidate George W. Bush Jr. and that speech has come back to haunt the NAACP as it has apparently triggered an IRS audit of the organization. An audit that the NAACP says is politically motivated and that they are not cooperating with.

The problem with the argument of the NAACP is that as a non-profit organization organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, there are certain forms of political actions and behaviors that they simply cannot take part in and Bond's speech appears to have crossed over that line. Why else would the IRS want a copy of the speech and the NAACP refuse to provide it? In fact, there was, repeat, was a link to the speech on the NAACP website, but that link no longer works.

There is a very good and logical reason for non-profits to be prohibited from engaging in political behavior, that reason being that donations to non-profits are tax-deductible to the donors. Quite the opposite from the treatment of donations to political organizations, which cannot be deducted as a contribution in any way, shape or form. To allow contributions to political organizations to be tax deductible would be to provide tax subsidies to political activities and that would be a serious gaffe on a societal level.

There is nothing wrong with Mr. Bond making speeches as a private citizen and making them as political as he pleases. But when he speaks on behalf of a IRS recognized non-profit, he needs to either follow the rules, or suffer the consequences. It would be a terrible shame if the NAACP lost its non-profit status because of Mr. Bond's speech, but it wouldn't be unfair, politically based, or a racist action. It would simply be justice for a violation of the rules. Mr. Bond needs to stop whining about this being a partisan witchhunt, cooperate with the IRS probe and get it over with.