In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the U.S. government conducted a well-orchestrated campaign of intimidation and harassment against opponents of the Vietnam War. During the Watergate investigations, it emerged that a key role was played by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through financial audits of individuals and organizations.
As opposition to the U.S. war in Central America has heated up in the mid-'80s, it appears that the IRS is once again casting its shadow of intimidation. A growing number of people--visitors to Nicaragua or sanctuary workers, for example--who have never been audited before are finding their personal financial records coming under IRS scrutiny.
A recently completed IRS audit of Sojourners seems to reinforce suspicions of an IRS return to methods of harassment. Late in 1985 the IRS, for the first time in our 15-year history, approached us to conduct an audit of our 1983 and 1984 financial records and organizational activities. It completed its audit in December 1986.
While acknowledging that our financial records were in good shape, the final report included the following three paragraphs:
During the examination of your Form 990 and its activities, it was noted that your literatures concerning the U.S. Defense Policy in general and Nuclear Armament in particular did not present all sides and facts of these issues, so as to allow the public to make an independent judgment.
Section 1.501(c)(3)-l(d)(3) states that an organization may be educational even though it advocates a particular position or viewpoint so long as it presents a sufficiently full and fair exposition of the pertinent facts as to permit an individual or the public to form an independent opinion or conclusion. On the other hand, an organization is not educational if its principal function is the mere presentation of unsupported opinion.
This is to advise you that all issues addressed should present all sides and facts of the issues. Further involvement in unsupported opinion might affect your tax exempt status in the future.
In 1974, Sojourners applied for and received tax-exempt status as a religious, educational, and charitable organization (also known as a 501(c)(3) organization). It was a decision we made with some ambivalence.
On one hand, a 501(c)(3) organization is granted exemption from certain taxes, allowing the organization to more effectively provide its services to society. Contributions to 501(c)(3) organizations are also tax exempt.
On the other hand, the government can, and sometimes does, attempt to exert control over the 501(c)(3) organization by, implicitly or explicitly, threatening to revoke its tax-exempt privileges. Political disagreement with administration policies has sometimes been the motivating force behind such threats.
Our opposition to U.S. nuclear policy and probably our position on Central America policy are, apparently, reasons for the IRS threat against us, rather than "unsupported opinion." Perhaps the Reagan administration hopes to intimidate us and others into at least softening our opposition.
Obviously, it is not the proper role of the IRS, or any government agency, to decide what are legitimate religious and political perspectives on public issues for non-profit organizations. And that is not the intent of the statute in question. But it seemed to be the clear intent of the IRS report on Sojourners.
SINCE THE 1984 INCIDENT of surveillance against Sojourners (see "Listening in on the Church," February 1986), reporters have been regularly calling us to ask about the event and related experiences. Shortly after receiving this recent IRS audit report, several reporters who were covering the congressional hearings on surveillance and break-ins of groups opposed to U.S. policy in Central America called us again. When they read these paragraphs from the IRS report, they too felt we were being threatened.
In March a San Francisco TV station did a special series on government harassment of groups opposing Reagan's Central America policy. During the telecast its reporter asked Rep. Don Edwards (D-Calif.), who heads the congressional surveillance hearings, to comment on Sojourners' IRS report. Rep. Edwards characterized the IRS letter to Sojourners as "blackmail of the very worst kind." And CBS News is arranging an interview with the IRS to discuss our case.
Since the IRS audit report seemed to us a rather transparent attempt at intimidation, I arranged for a meeting with the IRS agent who audited us and wrote the report. During our conversation at IRS headquarters, I challenged his assessment and asked whether any threat was intended. He eventually retreated from his claim that we were unfair and one-sided, saying he felt Sojourners does "present all facts as well as advocate a position." He emphatically denied that any threat was intended and acted surprised that we had interpreted his report that way.
I told him I found it rather difficult to reconcile his verbal account with the clear meaning of his report, and I suggested he might want to change the report accordingly. He replied that any change was impossible because the case was closed and couldn't be reopened.
As I departed, I asked him if we could expect to be audited again in the near future. His response: "To be honest, yes."
We at Sojourners have always been vigilant in maintaining our political and moral independence and integrity. Even when there has been only a slight indication from the IRS that our tax-exempt status might be in doubt because of our convictions, we have made it abundantly clear that we have no intention of changing course even if it means the loss of our tax exemption. Certainly, the financial implications of such a change in our status (mostly due to higher postal rates) would be significant. But we believe we would survive, with the support of our readers and friends, and that the moral cost of compromise would be far greater.
We continue to take that stand. We will challenge the IRS in its attempt illegally and unethically to control political opinion. IRS attempts to intimidate us simply will not work.
Joe Roos was a founder and publisher of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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