Comments on: Peter LaBarbera Loses Tax Exempt Status

By: Theo

Theo — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:22:55 +0000

There’s a lot of material to mine in this story. Like how odd it is that AFTAH could be in such extreme dereliction of its filing obligations when it has on its Board of Directors the esteemed Matt Barber, an Associate Dean of the Liberty University School of Law and an attorney at the Liberty Counsel. Did Barber and the other members of the Board carry out their fiduciary duty of care to inform themselves about the affairs of their organization and to ascertain that it was complying with the applicable tax laws? Heck, did they do anything in that capacity other than lend their names to the group?

Another interesting question: who funds this group, which accomplishes nothing. Some generous soul made a $10,000 matching grant at the end of 2010. Although it is unclear whether or to what extent the grant spurred other donations, it is a safe bet that someone tendered over 10 grand regardless.

I suspected it might be the LC or perhaps Peter’s former employer at IFI and an expenditure by those groups to another non-profit would show up on their 990s. So I go to the LC’s website to check its 990s. Nothing there. So I go to Guidestar to look at the filings. Well, what do you know? The last 990 that Guidestar has was filed in 2007, for the FY ending 6/30/07. In other words, the Liberty Counsel appears to have failed to meet its filing obligations in the same manner as AFTAH. Which raises the further question of why AFTAH is stripped of its tax exempt status but not the LC.

It is possible that the LC made the filings and that Guidestar somehow missed them for 3 years. I highly doubt that this is the case, but even if is true, the LC still would have an independent obligation to make these filings freely available to the public. That means making them available on the group’s website, through orgs like Guidestar, or at the very least by informing the public that the filings are available upon request.

By: Soren456

Soren456 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:07:23 +0000

I assume Pete needs only to file the proper forms to get his status back. But in the meantime, it’s gonna be fun when his donors try to claim a tax deduction and it doesn’t work. Tsk.

By: William

William — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:18:44 +0000

It has been a rather grey, overcast day here in the north of England, but this news has brightened it up no end.

By: TampaZeke

TampaZeke — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:57:06 +0000

It’s just a damned shame it took so long!

Doesn’t it make a body feel good all over that 99% of the anti-gay hate groups in America, including all the churches and the ones NOT listed by the SPLC, are beating us up and harassing us with their hundreds of millions of dollars TAX FREE?

Just makes you proud to be an American.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:45:34 +0000

@CPT_Doom, I was laughing with my friend this weekend, saying that I’m not surprised that the wackos haven’t come out of their dark corners and blamed all the Gays for the Debt-Ceiling Crisis.

So, I’m sure that Petie will blame us for this.

By: BlackDog

BlackDog — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:43:16 +0000

Seems more than a little suspicious as well that out of $110K he paid himself $75K of that.

I wonder what the rest went for? Does anyone work for him? Doesn’t he have other expenses besides his own paycheck?

It sounds like his “nonprofit” org was all about his own personal profit, but hey that’s just what I think.

By: CPT_Doom

CPT_Doom — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:25:09 +0000

Well just give me a moment to shed a tear for Peter. Okay it might take more than a moment – check back with me in a decade.

Now we can all breathlessly wait for Peter to explain how the evil homosexuals prevented him from following the law.