Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization
Pastors for Peace
418 West 145th St. New York, New York 10031
212.926.5757 (tel)* 212.926.5842 (fax)* *
Gail Walker, Executive Director
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IFCO Under Attack by the IRS:After years of continuous delays and unresponsiveness from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) has been informed it will be stripped of its tax-exempt status. Revocation of our exempt status could happen within the next few weeks unless we act now!
This prolonged examination and threat of revocation is unwarranted and is an abuse of discretion. It happens as we fulfill our duty as people of faith in solidarity with those who have experienced injustice at the hands of U.S. foreign policy makers - this includes the people of Palestine and Cuba. Like Moses who was punished when he stood up to Pharaoh, IFCO is being attacked for standing up to the powers to resist injustice.
Here is some general background about this case:
The IRS's audit of IFCO, which lead to this decision to revoke our tax exempt status, began in 2011.
Initially, the audit was sparked by IFCO's fiscal sponsorship of Viva Palestina, the U.S.-based component of the UK-based organization that delivered humanitarian aid to the beleaguered people of Gaza and that was accused by tea-party advocates of supporting terrorism. We fought back and proved that Viva was a legitimate charity.
The IRS then claimed that our work to bring humanitarian aid and friendship to the Cuban people was done in violation of the Treasury Department's "Trading with the Enemy Act." Once again, we fought back. We declared our rights as people of faith and conscience to stand in solidarity with our friends and family in Cuba. We challenged the IRS's ability to make this claim. It was, in reality, a question for the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the division within the Treasury Department which has jurisdiction over these matters. OFAC, fully aware of our annual caravans, has never prosecuted us.How and why is the IRS using our caravan work against us?
Finally, after we fought back against all these attempts to shut us down, now the IRS is claiming that they want to revoke our tax-exempt status over "sloppy record-keeping".
The IRS claims there are missing receipts for some of the IFCO projects in 2009 and 2010 (the years of the audit). In reality, the majority of receipts for those years DO exist and any misplaced receipts represent a minuscule percentage of IFCO's revenue in those years.
We firmly believe that to base the tax-exempt revocation of a 50-year-old civil and human rights organization on such a small issue is nothing short of extreme and represents an unwarranted remedy. In fact, even before the audit was completed, the IFCO Board of Directors passed a resolution that "officially" improved our record-keeping procedures.
We hope you will join us in our effort to fight back against this abuse of power and selective persecution.