The Advocate: Washington Watch: Enforce the Law as Written for Tax Exemptions

But there may be a simpler solution, suggests the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog organization: Enforce the law as written.

In a letter this month to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, the CLC took issue with his comments about the rules governing political activity by social-welfare groups, reported as: “The framework Congress has is you get to pick where you want to be. If you spend at this point less than 49 percent of your money on politics, you can be (tax-exempt).”

But in fact, the CLC maintains, Congress has done no such thing. ...

But the IRS on its own has decided that “exclusively” means “primarily.” To compound matters, the agency has never formally determined what “primarily” means. What’s happened, the CLC letter says, is that “aggressive practitioners have argued that anything up to 49 percent would be permissible under the regulation, and this view has not been challenged by the IRS as it should have been.” ...

“It really boils down to whether groups have to disclose their donors for political activity,” Paul S. Ryan, of the CLC, said. ...

The IRS could change its interpretation of the law, and the CLC has suggested as much. Or there’s another way to enforce plain English: an act of Congress.