Schumer, Wyden request IRS audit of the NRA's tax exemption

The IRS needs to examine whether the National Rifle Association should lose its tax-exempt status, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said today.

A recent report by Wyden's committee investigators raised questions about some NRA activities and social welfare requirements for its tax exemption, the senators wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. The report alleged some NRA members used a 2015 NRA trip to Moscow for their own personal business reasons rather than for tax-exempt purposes. Misuse of tax-exempt funding for private gain would violate tax laws.

“Given this report’s concerning findings and other allegations of potential violations of tax exempt law by the NRA, it is incumbent on the IRS to fully investigate the organization’s activities to determine whether the NRA’s tax exemption should be disallowed,” Schumer and Wyden wrote.

The issue also matters for U.S. elections and national security, they said.

The NRA refuted the findings in Wyden’s report, as did Senate Republican investigators who said none of the material calls into question the NRA’s tax exemption.

An attorney for the NRA said today that the report "is being used to justify yet another politically motivated investigation into the NRA."

“The exercise should raise concerns about an abuse of government power and waste of taxpayer funds," said William A. Brewer III, in a statement. "Fortunately, for the NRA and all advocacy groups, political speech is protected by the First Amendment of our Constitution.”