Don Wildmon
AFA/AFR founder
April 1997 – Currently, applications of three AFA state affiliates to be recognized as 501c-3 nonprofit organizations are being held up by the Internal Revenue Service. In each case the IRS has presented an extremely long list of questions clearly designed to make the application difficult and time consuming. Moreover, the IRS questions border on frivolous harassment. It asks whether these affiliates anticipate anyone in their organization being arrested, what the affiliate will do when a person is arrested, whether anyone in the affiliate is planning or participating in criminal acts, and whether the affiliate will incorporate “confrontational tactics” in their ministry activities. One comes to the conclusion that the intent of the IRS is to find some excuse, however flimsy, to deny the applications.
But at least the IRS is consistent. Well, they are consistent to a degree. It is now clearly evident that the Clinton administration is using one of the most powerful government agencies to punish, penalize and attack those with whom the administration finds fault.
I said the IRS was consistent. They are now investigating scores of organizations. They are consistent in that all the organizations being scrutinized are conservative. The Heritage Foundation, the Freedom Alliance, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Center for Public Policy and the Western Journalism Center – among others – are undergoing IRS audits. Not one single liberal group is getting the same treatment from the IRS. In fact, the IRS has bluntly told the Western Journalism Center that they aren’t interested in their finances. The IRS told WJC that they are auditing WJC because that group has been investigating the suicide of Vincent Foster.
The National Rifle Association is also undergoing a vigorous audit, which has cost that organization $1 million a year in legal fees since the audit began in 1995. In an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer in January 1995, President Clinton lashed out at the NRA, blaming it for the loss of 20 Democratic seats in Congress and giving Republicans control of Congress. One month after the speech, the IRS informed the NRA that it would be facing the audit. So drastic is the heavy hand of the IRS that it has demanded from the NRA its membership list.
The New York Post said in an editorial that the IRS was being used by Commissioner Margaret Miller Richardson – a close friend of the Clintons – in a manner that was unmistakably partisan.
In 1990, the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a Napa, California, group that defends the First Amendment rights of pro-life protesters, applied for a tax exemption. Just after the 1992 election the IRS sent a ruling denying the group exempt status. It cited concerns that Life Legal had as a “substantial purpose” defending people who subject themselves to arrest. Life Legal responded by noting that other groups involved in First Amendment issues such as protests at animal research labs, military bases and union picket lines had been given tax-exempt status. It filed a protest and included a request for files on eight liberal tax-exempt groups so it could prove a double standard. Nearly four years later, the IRS hasn’t provided the files and Life Legal’s case is tied up in Tax Court.
In contrast, a new group called the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids was granted a favorable tax-exempt letter on a highly expedited basis last year. The IRS takes at least 80 to 120 days to issue such a letter, but National Center received its letter just 27 days after its application. The National Center, incidentally, interjected itself into the Presidential election in a big way – but the IRS has ignored that activity.
It is a scary thought that the administration is using the IRS to punish those who have different beliefs and reward those who are “politically correct.”
Where are the voices of all the liberal groups, religious leaders and politicians? Silent.
Strangely silent. 
