Actually, the article title is incorrect.
It was the NRA ammosexual sheeple members getting fleeced and shorn who funded private jet rides…
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More grafting than Frankenstein’s monster…
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All I know is every time another grifting NRA story breaks it makes me very happy. They are going down and there isn’t a thing Republicans can do about it. State charges has such a sweet ring to it.
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It could put their nonprofit status at risk. There are several issues with this:
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The niece received a perk from her employer. The employer was required to show the cost of her personal travel on her W-2 the same way that employees who have company vehicles and can use them for personal travel are required to take the amount of this perk as income and it shows as non-salaried income on the W-2. If it wasn’t on her W-2 (and I’ll bet loads it wasn’t), then both the NRA and she would be liable for the taxable portion of the grift, er, I mean gift. Penalties can occur if payment is made in an amended return (by both).
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Nonprofits are required to report “non salaried” compensation to their highest paid executives on Form 990. Usually, it is medical insurance, deferred compensation, company vehicle for personal use, etc., but it also should include such things as Italian suits, personal vacation travel, etc.
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Having a vendor issue a credit card which a nonprofit executive is using for personal expenses or to even buy paper clips for the office is a huge red flag. The preferred method is to use company accounts to pay these expenses. The second best way is to reimburse the employee with bona fide receipts and in the reimbursement request explain why it wasn’t done with company money to begin with. And, it should be a fairly rare occurrence. It is never suggested that you launder the money through a credit card held in the employee’s name with the bill sent to the vendor who gets to turn around and just bill the nonprofit for the balance on the credit card. This doesn’t matter whether the employer is nonprofit or for profit.
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Inside dealing, especially when it gets to the level of what old Wayne has been doing will get a nonprofit’s tax exempt status pulled. If it is severe enough, it can be permanent and it can be retroactive. That means that donations made to it are no tax deductible. It also means the nonprofit is taxed as all levels of government as if they were a for profit business.
The NRA is not going to sweat losing the tax deductibility issue for its membership dues. I doubt if any of the members have been deducting it, anyway. But that big sack of cash the oligarchs and the gun industry have been sending their way will have an impact. While corporations can only claim donations in profitable years and then only a low percentage of their gifts in profitable years, these BIG gifts have been deducted by someone. I would guess most have been deducted on the business’ owners’ and executives’ personal returns.
The NRA has been blowing through it’s cash for several years now and living on reserves to fund the deficit. If it were for profit, it would be operating at a loss and therefore no tax would be due.
ETA: Fixed spelling errors
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Hey, thanks for a really good write-up. I guess you know your cow-pies on this.
I found it quite educational.
But did Melania get pony rides and was Wayne allowed to mount his favorite jackass, Donnie?
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That’s EXACTLY what I was about to post!
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I am usually not one to comment on Math, having been the Math challenged first male child of an Engineer (who was very pissed about that particular generation skipping gene), but $3M is more than 5% of $60M. So he must have a pretty humongous retirement slush fund from his limited career at the NRA. He could have been an excellent Wall St Weenie.
Uh, $3M is exactly 5% of $60M, isn’t it?
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The gun lobby is great at quashing any kind of research into gun violence–just as the pharmaceutical companies tried to cover their asses (and with the help of the gov’t) kept studies that pointed to the causes of the opioid crisis from seeing the light of day–there will be no funding into gun violence research until the NRA and the GOP goes down.
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Within the NRA what will wind up happening is the directors who do mind that Wayne-O gets all these off the books perks will be quietly shown the door while those who believe the NRA and LaPierre are inextricably intertwined will remain on the board and noisily complain about anyone who dares question the integrity of their lord and savior. Outside of the NRA what should happen is it should be stripped of its tax-exempt status for all this self-dealing, treating the NRA’s money like Wayne’s personal piggy bank, something that would under normal circumstances in a corporation result in the board firing the execs and instituting a suit to recover the graft but given how much Trump and the GOP depend on a reliable single issue base and all the laundered rubles it’s not likely to happen, at least at the federal level. So yes, hurray for state fraud charges.
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I’ve served on a few nonprofit boards and a couple for profit corporate boards. I’ve served on religious denomination boards and I’ve served on my local church board. I’ve attended a few city council and county council meetings.
Without exception, the board members rubber stamp what the hired help proposes. There’s rarely any pushback (outside of me!) and rarely does anyone come to the meetings prepared to discuss the topics on the agenda or even propose new topics to discuss. And when anyone has been caught doing due diligence, you are right, they are usually shown the door.
So now, I make donations to nonprofits, attend my local church service and drop a check each week in the collection and whistle every time I think my local government is having a meeting. That way, I don’t get so pissed off.
Yeah, LOL. As soon as I got to the subway and sat down on the train, I realized it was exactly 5%. I warned you my Dad’s engineer math and science genes skipped a generation. Sorry. 