United Daughters of the Confederacy would lose Virginia tax breaks, if Youngkin signs off

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

February 26, 2024, 4:54 PM


RICHMOND, Va. -- Legislation that would end tax benefits for the United Daughters of the Confederacy — the Richmond-based women's group that helped erect many of the country's Confederate monuments — is on its way to Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who hasn't said whether he supports it.

The Democratic-led House of Delegates gave final passage Monday to a bill that would eliminate both a recordation and property tax exemption for the group. A separate, companion measure that reached final passage last week also eliminates those exemptions. The bills have moved through the legislature with mostly party-line support and relatively little debate.

The few individuals who have spoken out against the legislation have called it discriminatory, while supporters argued the tax benefits have amounted to state-sponsored subsidies for Confederate monuments and are out of line with 21st-century values. “Since Virginia no longer supports the legacy of the Confederacy, we need to reflect that in our legislation,” Democratic Sen. Angelia Williams Graves of Norfolk, the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said in a legislative hearing.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy for over a century has “spread the lie” of the Lost Cause — an ideology that downplayed the role slavery played in the Civil War — and “instilled fear in marginalized groups by erecting Confederate monuments around the United States," Williams Graves said. The nonprofit group, which owns a marble-clad Memorial Building positioned on a prominent Richmond boulevard with an assessed value of over $4.4 million, did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/united-daughters-confederacy-lose-virginia-tax-breaks-youngkin-107562081

[underpants]

1. I can't imagine he signs it.

He’d never be able to live that down with the Va Reublicans - party or their voters.

[The Grand Illuminist]

2. It seems slavery denial is the new holocaust denial.

And should be treated as such.

[intelpug]

3. Daughters of the confederacy

I know that they are an unpopular group these day's but, According to their website they meet all the IRS requirements of tax exemption. What ever happens, happens. However, IF it happens then what politically unpopular group will lose THEIR tax exemption in any given state after this? In the end I don't think it will pass legal muster

[BumRushDaShow]

5. This has nothing to do with federal tax exemption but VA STATE tax exemptions

[intelpug]

7. Virginia tax exemptions

I get that but that is my point, If they lose tax exemption in one state after enjoying tax exemption for years because of
current political unpopularity then watch it begin to happen to other groups in state's where their message is similarly unpopular in a tit for tat cycle. I am simply pointing out what this could start

[BumRushDaShow]

8. It depends on that state's laws

(including their state Constitution)

We are stuck with "states rights" whether we benefit from them or not.

There is SCOTUS precedent that deems that federal tax exemption status can be revoked if an organization violates "fundamental public policy" - BOB JONES UNIVERSITY, Petitioner v. UNITED STATES. GOLDSBORO CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS, INC., Petitioner v. UNITED STATES.

The IRS has tread lightly applying this after getting hand-slapped about the various teabagger groups but when it comes to racial discrimination and groups that espouse or sprung from this (which was a focus of that Bob Jones U case), that should be a different story. There was a good opinion piece on that here - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/opinion/white-supremacists-tax-exemptions.html

[Rhiannon12866]

4. My first thought when I heard of them was that they must be incredibly old!

[wolfie001]

6. Let's all see what Dumbkin's gonna do