The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance (MassFiscal) is continuing to call out the missteps of the Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM), a 501(c)(3) tax deductible non-profit organization, due to the overtly political electioneering activities being engaged in by their tax-deductible, non-profit organization.

A copy of the IRS complaint letter can be viewed here.

On Friday, MassFiscal reported on a series of ELM’s independent expenditures that were not made public and not disclosed to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF). Last year, MassFiscal reported on ELM’s endorsements of political candidates for public office. According to ELM’s recently filed 2020 Form 990 (tax return), the tax-deductible organization did not disclose to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that their organization was engaging in overt political election activity. IRS rules strictly forbid tax-deductible non-profits from conducting political and electioneering activities.

 “Any tax-deductible non-profit organization understands this basic rule of IRS code and perhaps that is why it appears ELM denied their activity to the IRS. We believe this information warrants an examination and we hope the IRS will compel ELM to remove their election activity from their tax-deductible program. ELM has put partisan electoral politics ahead of their program, and IRS rules must apply to everyone equally, including ELM,” said Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“ELM’s continual denials on this issue prove their credibility should be questioned by the public. If they cannot follow basic IRS rules, basic campaign finance rules, produce basic information to regulators, how can the public trust them on anything else?” concluded Craney.