On November 26, the Department of Treasury released proposed regulations billed as “more definitive rules” for when the IRS will treat certain activities by section 501(c)(4) organization as political activity. It is hard to argue that the proposal provides some clarity, but only by classifying a wide variety of activities as candidate-related and therefore not qualifying 501(c)(4) “social welfare” activity. The proposal is thus likely to present tax-exempt status concerns for many organizations. Moreover, nothing is offered to guide 501(c)(4) managers and advisors on what types of activities that relate to candidates or officeholders would qualify as promoting the social welfare.

Background

Organizations that are exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code are required to engage primarily in activities that promote social welfare. This requirement has often been interpreted to allow an organization to engage in political activities as long as those activities are not the primary activities of a 501(c)(4). In recent years, many 501(c)(4) organizations have engaged in a substantial amount of political advocacy, while taking care not to appear to be engaging primarily in such activity. 

The IRS scandal that broke earlier this year centered on the agency’s handling of (for the most part) 501(c)(4) tax-exemption applications that suggested the possibility of extensive political activities. Many commentators have noted that the growth in 501(c)(4) political activity has presented a difficult problem for the IRS because it has such few rules in place to enforce the “primary” standard. 

Proposed Regulations

It is amid this backdrop that Treasury released its proposed regulations (which would amend portions of Treas. Regs. § 1.501(c)(4)-1). In substance, the proposal would create an “unsafe harbor”—a category of activity, specifically focused on 501(c)(4) organizations, that is termed “candidate-related political activity.” This category of activity would be included among other types of activities that are not consistent with the promotion of social welfare and, as such, that are not permitted to be a primary activity of a 501(c)(4) organization. The definition of candidate-related activity is quite broad and goes beyond what is commonly understood to be campaign activity. Among the more types of activities that are alarmingly included among the list of candidate-related political activity:

• Conduct of a voter registration or “get-out-the-vote” drive, even if nonpartisan;
• Hosting an event within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election where one or more candidates appear as part of the program; and
• The payment of money to any organization described in section 501(c) that itself engages in campaign-related activity (and the presumption here appears to be that such recipient organization does engage in campaign-related activity unless a written representation is obtained from the recipient and a written restriction on the contribution is given by the 501(c)(4)).

There are many more aspects of this proposed rule and many more categories of activities that would fit into the “campaign-related” category. Interestingly, the proposal borrows from existing federal election law concepts like electioneering communications and express advocacy. Also, it should be noted that the Treasury Department has identified a number of specific areas where it is requesting comments—including whether any rules on this topic should also apply to 501(c)(5) and 501(c)(6) organizations, whether to adopt a similar approach to define impermissible campaign intervention under section 501(c)(3), and whether the rules should address how one determines whether an activity is at such a level that it becomes a “primary” activity of the organization.

Comments will be due in late February. Judging from the initial response, there are sure to be plenty of submissions.