Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air has the story.  Occupy Wall Street is now receiving Tax-Deductable

Conservative Investigative Reporter Michelle Malkin

Donations!  And guess where they’re keeping them?  IN A BANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Occupy Wall Street teamed up with the Alliance For Global Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group, to receive tax-deductible donations.

Unfortunately, the initial influx in funding was so large it exceeded the limit the credit card processor, e-onlinedata, had on the AFGJ’s account, freezing it for 48 hours. The result: roughly $144,000 worth of rejected donations, according to AFGJ National Co-Coordinator, Chuck Kaufman.

“The timing could not have been worse,” Kaufman said. The account froze, “just at the time when potential donations spiked.”

But since the account was reactivated late in the day Friday, tax-deductible funding has continued to pour in. After going through the AFGJ, the money is being deposited into Occupy Wall Street’s accounts at the Lower East Side Credit Union and Amalgamated Bank.

Times Square Occupy Wall Street Protest

But the story gets better.  Occupy Wall Street seems to be identifying itself as a non-profit effort, NOT a protest.  An accountant emailed Michelle Malkin and her Hot Air page explaining how this kind of exploitation of non-profit status is EXPLOITIVE:

I’m a liberal in good standing and an attorney with a good deal of experience with charities..  While I obviously disagree w/ you on most things political, you’ve always struck me as reasonable, and my loathing of the abuse of charitable status is one of those things that really gets under my skin.  You may or may not think any of this is interesting, but if you do I’d greatly appreciate confidentiality.

That said: I saw the other day that Occupy Wall Street had gotten $150k in contributions, so that led me to the site to figure out their tax status, assuming that there wouldn’t be anything in particular, which would mean the income should be taxable.  That, in turn, led me to their donation page at an organization called “Alliance for Global Justice.”  It turns out that AGJ is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity, and it’s using its exemption to collect tax deductible contributions and then disbursing the funds to the protesters (under the aegis of “fiscal sponsor,” a generally accepted tool for charities).  So AGJ is taking the position that the protests are “charitable,” and getting the taxpayers to subsidize the protests to the tune of 35 cents per dollar contributed.  On their 3/31/11 Form 990, they report zero lobbying expenses, which, based on a cursory review of their website, seems absurd.  Granted, “lobbying” is a bit of a term of art in exempt organization law, so it may or may not be accurate.

At any rate, this is flatly outrageous.  While I couldn’t stand the tea party, at least they didn’t have the nerve to call themselves a charity and accept deductible donations.

Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars In Donated Goods and Money

 

Here’s the clincher:  Those who donate to not for profit charities, are JUST the people whom Occupy Wall Street seems to be protesting!  They are protesting their own givers.   Crazy.

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Oct 16, 2011