Technical Assistance Question of the Week

Q: My organization sometimes lobbies in the United States Congress, but we have never done enough to require us to register with the Congress as lobbyists. We are considering electing to use the 501(h) expenditure test to measure our lobbying limit. Will electing to use 501(h) mean that we will also have to register as lobbyists?

A: No. Section 501(h) of the federal tax code creates a mechanism that makes it easier for a public charity to track its lobbying activity for purposes of reporting the Internal Revenue Service. Electing to use this mechanism, which is a good idea for most public charities that lobby, has no impact on whether the organization or any of its staff must register as a lobbyist under the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) or any similar state law. The LDA, like its state counterparts, provides its own definition of what activities count toward the threshold that triggers the registration requirement, and that definition operates independently of the IRS’s reporting rules.