[Vision2020] Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Corporate Election

[John Pool]

Did the Supreme Court decision on the ban suggest how the expense of
supporting or opposing a candidate shall be treated for tax purposes? It's
one thing to allow corporations (and presumably unions) to spend money
directly for this purpose, but the money has to come from somewhere. Is it
to be a legitimate expense, deducted from taxes, or taken from profit after
taxes, or what? What will, and will not, the IRS allow? And what of
shareholders? If XYZ Corp supports Sarah Palin for Congress from Alaska, and
a sizeable number (or even a handful) of the shareholders are opposed to
her, is this a legitimate basis for a stockholder suit? I suspect this
decision by the Supreme Court, while seemingly favorable to big business, is
not as cut and dried as it first appears. 

 

And if corporations have the same rights as individuals to spend money
directly, do corporations have the same limits imposed on their expenditures
as are exerted on individuals? What of non-profit corporations such as
churches? Can they now openly support or oppose an individual or group at
election time?  This seems like a subject made for the Viz-opinions will fly
fast and furious and facts will be slow to develop. Oh boy! Watch the mud
being slung!

 

John Pool

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100121/716adf29/attachment-0001.html