How Nonprofits Became Tax-Exempt
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May 15 (Bloomberg) -- The uproar over allegations ofpolitically motivated investigations by theInternal Revenue Service shouldn’t be surprising givenAmericans’ long love affair with nonprofits and their strongdisdain of partisanship, especially within bureaucracies.
After independence, and especially after ratification ofthe Constitution, Americans began forming businesses, charitiesand other associations at unprecedented rates. Unshackled fromBritish law and the threat of monarchical tyranny, they soughtto invest in long-term stability, and in each other, in waysthat required the establishment of large and lastingorganizations.