Here&#x27;s more Mother Jones reporting: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.motherjones.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;irs-tea-party-tax-problems" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.motherjones.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;irs-tea-party-ta...</a><p>I can provide a little context here.  When I was in college I was a conservative Republican.  Some right-wing groups in Washington deliberately and consciously helped me and many other students set up tax-exempt organizations.  Everything was technically OK.<p>But in retrospect?  It&#x27;s pretty clear their strategy was to create a bunch of exempt organizations through which to funnel money for political purposes.  The big loophole at that time was that you could be a 501c3 and provide &quot;education&quot; and remain exempt.  Now if ALL of that education just happened to benefit the right-wing of the GOP, well I guess that&#x27;s just a coincidence.<p>Frankly, the IRS was totally right in going after these groups.  The problem is they overreached in some cases.  Many of the groups are not following the spirit of the law and I would wager that many of them are not even following the letter of the law.<p>For example, you&#x27;re not supposed to coordinate with election campaigns if you&#x27;re a 501c3, but what if everyone on your board is actively involved in local Republican politics?  Even if your board meeting is technically non-partisan, when everyone goes out for drinks afterwards (on the non-profit&#x27;s tab) you can be sure that election strategy is going to be a topic of conversation.<p>For the record, I do not see liberal groups flagrantly disregarding the law in such a manner, which makes sense because they&#x27;re ideologically less committed to dodging taxes.<p>TLDR: If a bunch of people are organizing around the concept &quot;taxes suck, let&#x27;s not pay them!&quot; it&#x27;s a pretty safe bet that many of them are actually breaking the law.