501(c)(6) Organizations

Background

A 501(c)(6) organization is a business league, a chamber of commerce like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a real estate board, a board of trade, a professional football league or an organization like the Edison Electric Institute, and the Security Industry Association, that are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings goes to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

Qualifications for Exemption

A business league may qualify if it is an association of persons having a common business interest, whose purpose is to promote the common business interest and whose activities improve business conditions rather than actually conduct the business itself. Members of the organization must be of the same trade, business, occupation, or profession in order to qualify. A chamber of commerce or board of trade could qualify for similar reasons except that they may promote the common economic interests of all the commercial enterprises in a given trade or community.

An association would not qualify if its principal activities consist of securing benefits and performing particular services for members.

An association that promotes the common interests of certain hobbyists would not qualify because the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not consider hobbies to be activities conducted as businesses.

An organization whose primary activity is advertising the products or services of its members does not qualify because the organization is performing a service for its members rather than promoting common interests. If an organization's primary activity is advertising the products or services of its members' industry as a whole, however, the organization will generally qualify if it also performs other services for its members.

Contributions and Activities

Much like 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(5) organizations, 501(c)(6) organizations may also perform some political activities. 501(c)(6) organizations are allowed to attempt to influence legislation that is related to the common business interests of its members.

A 501(c)(6) organization may receive unlimited contributions from corporations, individuals, and labor unions. The names and addresses of contributors are not required to be made available for public inspection, with the exception of a 501(c)(6) organization that makes independent expenditures. All other information, including the amount of contributions, the description of non-cash contributions, and any other information, is required to be made available for public inspection unless it clearly identifies the contributor. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a large political spender, and Freedom Partners [Koch Brothers] used its status as a 501(c)(6) organization to raise and distribute over $250 million during the 2012 election campaigns without disclosing its donors. The Freedom Partner's existence was not publicly known until nearly a year after the election.

A business' membership dues paid to a 501(c)(6) organization are generally an ordinary and necessary business expense. The membership dues are tax-deductible in full unless a substantial part of the 501(c)(6) organization's activities consists of political activity, in which case a tax deduction is allowed only for the portion of membership dues that are for other activities.

Every organization, including a 501(c)(6) organization, that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a particular political candidate and spends more than $250 during a calendar year must disclose the name of each person who contributed more than $200 during the calendar year to the Federal Election Commission. The Federal Election Commission is required to enforce this provision based on a federal court decision in 2018.

History

The predecessor of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 501(c)(6) was enacted as part of the Revenue Act of 1913 likely due to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce request for an exemption for nonprofit "civic" and "commercial" organizations, which resulted in IRC 501(c)(4) for nonprofit "civic" organizations and IRC 501(c)(6) for nonprofit "commercially-oriented" organizations. The Revenue Act of 1928 amended the statute to include real estate boards. In 1966, professional football leagues were added to the described organizations.

The Revenue Act of 1913 related to professional football leagues had both antitrust and tax provisions: The antitrust provision was enacted to permit the merger of the National Football League and American Football League to go forward without fear of an antitrust challenge under either the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act, or the 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act. IRC 501(c)(6) amendment was enacted in 1966 to ensure that a professional football league's exemption would not be jeopardized because it administered a players' pension fund. Additionally, a professional sports league's exemption is not to be jeopardized because its primary source of revenue is the sale of television broadcasting rights to its games because the broadcasting of games increases public awareness of the sport.

In 2013, Senator Tom Coburn introduced legislation to disallow a tax exemption for the National Football League, the Professional Golfers' Association, and other professional sports organizations. Coburn estimated the tax exemption cost $100 million, but he said he could not get other members of Congress to support the legislation.

Additional Reading

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