At your request, I conducted a limited review of documents, including Ethics Committee* transcripts, to advise you on the tax laws involved in the controversy surrounding Speaker Gingrich's use of 501(c)(3) organizations to create, sustain and disseminate a college course entitled "Renewing American Civilization." It is expected that counsel for the Ethics Committee is building a case which argues that one or more of the 501(c)(3) organizations involved with Speaker Gingrich violated the tax laws and may even have done so with his knowledge and approval. A. You have my curriculum vitae; to summarize, it describes my 36 plus years in the exempt organizations sector, including 6 years with the Exempt Organizations Branch of the Internal Revenue Service. Substantially all of my law practice is on behalf of 501(c)(3) The Ethics Committee is the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the House of Representatives. Because of time constraints, the text of this letter is more informal than ordinarily occurs in my opinion letters. WILLIAM J. LEHRFELD, P.C. Letter to Ed Bethune, Esq. organizations. I have handled more than 20 trial and/or appellate cases in the exempt area (including charitable deductions), including 4 private benefit cases. I am counsel of record in 4 cases pending in Federal Courts today (excluding a pending trial where I serve as an expert witness on private foundation law). In pro bono matters, I served as the Chairman of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the Tax Sections of both the American Bar Association and Federal Bar Association and have authored more than 40 articles on exempt organization matters including three articles on political activities of exempt organizations. I have never represented Speaker Gingrich or any Member of Congress. B. The "Renewing American Civilization" course taught at the Kennesaw State College and Reinhardt College was funded by contributions to these 501(c)(3) entities and The Progress and Freedom Foundation. The course work was developed by Speaker Gingrich, a political person, in a political context, to extol certain virtues, which arguably, from the press reports, can be owned by and used by only one political party. Prior to allowing the course to be taught, the colleges reviewed the course for its pedagogic qualities and approved its offering. The core of the controversy is whether the parentage of the course, its donors, or comparable extraneous matters (including the illumination of the Speaker as a teacher/advocate) created too important an effect or impact to preclude characterization of the involved 501(c)(3) |