[TriLUG] About the SSSCA....

[Jon Carnes]

Matt is right.  We can profess a political position all we want, as long as
our pocket books stay closed.  We can even spend money on political issues
and lobbying, so long as it does not exceed a certain percentage of our
annual budget (or exceed $5k?).

In anycase, we're fine.  Our funding level is so small that we fly well
below any limits imposed on 501(c)3.

Jon (the treasurer) Carnes

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Hoover" <matth at haht.com>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] About the SSSCA....


> As an officer of another 501(c)3 educational organization (Eno River
> Assoc.), I can tell you that there are limits on what kinds of lobbing you
> can do, and how much you can spend on lobbing as a 501(c)3.  That being
> said, sending letters to elected officials stating the groups position on
> issues is clearly an OK thing to do.  The major places that the
organization
> can get into trouble is if the recommend one candidate for office over
> another, or spend more that a certain percentage of the organizations
funds
> on lobbing.
> Since I am not an expert, it might be worth asking whoever prepares the
IRS
> form 990's for their opinion.  I know that the Eno River Assoc. received
> advice to file certain forms with the IRS on how we do lobbing, and that
our
> accountant recommends that all 501(c)3 file these forms, even if they
don't
> do any lobbing.  If the steering committee is interested, I can forward
the
> email address of the ERA's account/auditor to them off list.
> --matt hoover
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kevin - The Alchemist - Sonney" <alchemist at darkcanvas.com>
> To: <trilug at trilug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 9:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] About the SSSCA....
>
>
> > On Tue, Sep 11, 2001 at 09:32:44AM -0400, jeremyp at pobox.com spoke
thusly:
> > > Doesn't our status as a 501(c)3 educational organization limit our
> > > involvement in political things like this?  I don't know much about
> that,
> > > just thought I'd bring it up.  Don't want to jeapordize tax deductions
> for
> > > our pizza sponsors. :)
> >
> > I don't think writing letters & faxing them is against the law. I
> > think it has more to do with giving money. If it does, though, we'll
> > make arangements to work around it *grin*
> >
> > How does that sound?
> >
> > --
> > --------------------------------------------
> > --      Kevin "The Alchemist" Sonney      --
> > --  New email : alchemist at darkcanvas.com  --
> > --  http://www.darkcanvas.com/~alchemist  --
> > --  ICQ: 4855069            AIM: ksonney  --
> > --------------------------------------------
> >
> > "If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find
> > the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian,
> > if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners."
> >   -- Berkley Breathed, 2001
> > _______________________________________________
> > TriLUG mailing list
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
>
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