They say it’s not nice — or wise — to fool with the IRS. New reports suggest that longtime GOP political maven Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS spent far more on politics than it reported to the IRS:
You know what they say: a million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking real dark money.
ProPublica on Monday documented how the Karl Rove-linked dark money group Crossroads GPS spent about $11 million more on political activities in 2012 than it disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service.
By comparing tax documents, ProPublica’s Kim Barker showed how even though Crossroads justified its social welfare non-profit status by pointing to $35 million in grants it made in 2012 to other non-profits, “at least $11.2 million of the grant money given to the group Americans for Tax Reform was spent on political activities expressly advocating for or against candidates.”
This means that Crossroads spent at least $85.7 million on political activities, not the $74.5 million the group reported to the IRS on its 2012 tax return. It also means political activities made up about 45 percent of Crossroads’ total expenditures.
And, in the end, Crossroads GPS had little to show for it in the way of victories.
So you could say Mr. Rove ran his own limited stimulus program. It’ll be interesting to see if the IRS presents Rove & Co. with a back bill. The internet photoshopped fantasy that has been around for several years (see above) of him doing the perp walk may not come to pass, but usually the IRS doesn’t like to be given one cent less than what it’s due.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.