NAACP retains tax exempt status

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The Internal Revenue Service, ending a two-year investigation into whether a 2004 election-year speech by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond violated rules prohibiting tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates, has concluded that the civil rights organization can keep it’s tax exempt status.  The NAACP said the IRS determined “that political intervention did not occur” in relation to Bond’s speech at the organization’s annual convention that year.  The decision came six weeks after Bush addressed the NAACP’s convention for the first time during his presidency.  “It’s disappointing that the IRS took nearly two years to conclude what we knew from the beginning: the NAACP did not violate tax laws and continues to be politically non-partisan,” said NAACP President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon.  “Tax-exempt organizations should feel free to critique and challenge governmental policies under the First Amendment without fear of IRS intervention.”  The IRS launched the audit in October 2004, three months after Bond criticized Bush administration policies in his July 11 speech.  In an Oct. 8 letter, the IRS said the NAACP” distributed statements in opposition of George W. Bush for the office of the presidency.” The letter also said that Bond’s speech “condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq.”