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IRS strips tax-exempt status from Richard Spencer's white nationalist nonprofit
Richard Spencer is (or was) a part-time resident of Whitefish.
IRS strips tax-exempt status from Richard Spencer's white nationalist nonprofit
By Matt Pearce
March 13, 2017, 6:05 PM
The nonprofit run by one of America’s most prominent white nationalists, Richard Spencer, has lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns with the federal government, according to Internal Revenue Service records. ... An inquiry by The Times also raised questions about whether Spencer had properly filed paperwork allowing the National Policy Institute to raise funds in Virginia, its primary place of business, and whether Spencer, a Donald Trump supporter, had flouted federal rules that forbid nonprofits from supporting or opposing political candidates.
On Monday, Spencer said an IRS error led him to believe his group was not required to file federal tax returns, and said he would appeal the loss of his tax-exempt status. ... “I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to make a comment because I don’t understand this stuff,” Spencer said in a telephone interview. “It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not good. We’ll figure it out.”
Spencer also said his group had filed the necessary paperwork to operate as a nonprofit in Virginia. But a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates charities in the state, said Monday that the status of Spencer’s group was under review. ... The paperwork trouble at the National Policy Institute, which was registered under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, seems to have started shortly after Spencer took over the organization in 2011 and used it as a vehicle for promoting his “alternative right” beliefs, which include the need for a separate nation for white people.
....
Spencer recently opened an office above a chocolatier’s shop in the suburb of Alexandria in Virginia, where the National Policy Institute is incorporated. He raised more than $50,000 in donations from an online fundraising drive held over several weeks at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017. The National Policy Institute’s website solicits donations by mail to be sent to a post office box in Arlington, Va. ... But as of February, a database maintained by the Virginia Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs had listed the National Policy Institute as “not authorized to solicit in Virginia.”
....
matt.pearce@latimes.com
@mattdpearce
By Matt Pearce
March 13, 2017, 6:05 PM
The nonprofit run by one of America’s most prominent white nationalists, Richard Spencer, has lost its tax-exempt status for failing to file tax returns with the federal government, according to Internal Revenue Service records. ... An inquiry by The Times also raised questions about whether Spencer had properly filed paperwork allowing the National Policy Institute to raise funds in Virginia, its primary place of business, and whether Spencer, a Donald Trump supporter, had flouted federal rules that forbid nonprofits from supporting or opposing political candidates.
On Monday, Spencer said an IRS error led him to believe his group was not required to file federal tax returns, and said he would appeal the loss of his tax-exempt status. ... “I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to make a comment because I don’t understand this stuff,” Spencer said in a telephone interview. “It’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not good. We’ll figure it out.”
Spencer also said his group had filed the necessary paperwork to operate as a nonprofit in Virginia. But a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates charities in the state, said Monday that the status of Spencer’s group was under review. ... The paperwork trouble at the National Policy Institute, which was registered under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, seems to have started shortly after Spencer took over the organization in 2011 and used it as a vehicle for promoting his “alternative right” beliefs, which include the need for a separate nation for white people.
....
Spencer recently opened an office above a chocolatier’s shop in the suburb of Alexandria in Virginia, where the National Policy Institute is incorporated. He raised more than $50,000 in donations from an online fundraising drive held over several weeks at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017. The National Policy Institute’s website solicits donations by mail to be sent to a post office box in Arlington, Va. ... But as of February, a database maintained by the Virginia Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs had listed the National Policy Institute as “not authorized to solicit in Virginia.”
....
matt.pearce@latimes.com
@mattdpearce