Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Blowing the Whistle on Non-Profit Fraud



Trent Stamp, CEO of Charity Navigator, wants to be an IRS whistleblower. He figures that there are several non-profits out there committing massive tax fraud and that makes it difficult for the rest of us to raise money.

Trent Stamp's Take: The IRS Owes Me Money!: "So, who do I know who is committing massive tax fraud? How about the Youth Development Fund of Memphis? They raised over $3 million last year and spent roughly the same amount ($363,000) on their CEO's salary as they did on program expenses ($400,000). And oh yeah, because they're a 'non-profit', they paid $0 in income taxes. How is this not tax fraud?

If the IRS wants more, I can give them the Firefighters Charitable Foundation, which raised over $5 million last year, using their IRS-provided tax-exempt status, and gave out $300K to firefighters. Or the Deputy Sheriffs' Fraternal Organization, which raised $500K in tax-deductible donations and promptly dispensed $20K of it. Or I could just rat out the American Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation. There can't be any way that the IRS is aware of the fact that they raised about $1.2 million from tax-payers last year, and then gave out under $50,000 of it in the pursuit of their work. The rest just disappeared, like a thief in the night."
Photo by Noah Coffey

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