GOP top lawmaker urging IRS to revoke tax-exempt status for non-profit founded by Stacey Abrams | Law Enforcement Today

ATLANTA , GA - Fox News reported that the New Georgia Project, a non-profit founded by gubernational candidate Stacey Abrams, was recently taxed $300,000 for violating state election laws. Now, the House of Representatives' top lawmaker on taxation is urging the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to revoke the tax-exempt status of the non-profit. 

The Abrams-found group was fined after the Georgia Ethics Commission ruled that the non-profit violated state election laws. In his letter to IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) called it "the largest penalty in the Ethics Commission's history and possibly the largest ethics fine ever issued in the United States."

The commission unanimously charged the New Georgia Project with failing to disclose more than $4 million in campaign contributions and more than $3 million in expenditures while backing Abrams' failed 2018 gubernational campaign. Smith wrote, "As you know, under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), organizations are strictly prohibited from participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."

Smith added, "The IRS may revoke an organization's tax-exempt status or assess excise taxes for certain types of violations if it determines the organization is noncompliant as it relates to political campaign intervention."

Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 to help boost voter registration efforts. However, she has not been involved with the group since 2017. As Smith pointed out, groups registered as 501(c)(3) non-profits are prohibited from participating in or advocating for specific political candidates. 

The New Georgia Project's affiliated group, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, is able to endorse candidates, but donations are not tax-exempt. Smith wrote, "The New Georgia Project's intervention in the 2018 election cycle in support of Stacey Abrams and other candidates' campaigns amounts to a clear violation of their tax-exempt status."

He added, "The GSEC's findings show that the New Georgia Project has participated in activities and events outside of the organization's tax-exempt purpose and should therefore lose its tax-exempt status and be reclassified as an 'action organization.'"

He wrote, "I request that you use your authority to make this referral a priority and make certain that the IRS moves quickly to examine and revoke the tax-exempt status of the New Georgia Project."

At the time of the commission's ruling, New Georgia Project attorney Aria Branch told NBC News, "While we remain disappointed that the federal court ruling on the constitutionality of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act was overturned on entirely procedural grounds, we accept this outcome and are eager to turn the page on activities that took place more than five years ago."