American Police Officers Alliance is proud to announce the results of a recent in-depth audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Last year, our team worked directly with the Tax Exempt/Government Entities (TE/GE) division of the IRS to provide its agents with all requested documents regarding projects, fundraising, billing and more, in order to determine whether our organization was operating properly and worthy of it’s tax-exempt status.
The full audit included the examination, review and analysis of American Police Officers Alliance’s finances and governance, including:
- Full financial statements
- A review of every general ledger transaction
- All tax returns since the organization’s inception
- Board governance & bylaws
- Board of Directors potential & real conflicts
- Fundraising & consultant contracts
- Direct & indirect exempt activity
- Analysis of any federal activity
Who is American Police Officers Alliance?
American Police Officers Alliance is a political non-profit organization organized under section 527 of the IRS Code. The organization is dedicated to advocating for the interests of law enforcement officers in the political process. Since inception, American Police Officers Alliance has actively worked to promote policies that enhance the well-being and safety of police officers while fostering strong relationships between communities and law enforcement agencies.
Is American Police Officers Alliance Compliant?
Recently the IRS, the federal agency responsible for overseeing tax-exempt organizations, conducted a comprehensive review of American Police Officers Alliance’s 2019 and 2020 fiscal years. One of those years was a non-election year where the organization spent much of the year advocating for pro-police policies. The other year (2020) was an election year that included many of our largest political projects to date.
This process cost the organization an extensive amount of time, labor, and money to complete, working closely with the IRS agent assigned to this audit. After the thorough evaluation, which included both the Organizational Test and the Operational Test, a letter was sent to our organization from the IRS outlining the process and its findings.
American Police Officers Alliance came out with an “all clear” and “clean bill of health” on all of its governance, finances, and exempt activities and programming. These results are a huge vote of confidence in the effectiveness, transparency, and ethical leadership of American Police Officers Alliance.
What This Audit Means Moving Forward
The Skyles Law Group from Chicago represented the organization throughout the exhaustive audit that lasted almost 6 months. “The IRS has confirmed that American Police Officers Alliance has been operating within the confines of the law,” James Skyles of the Skyles Law Group said in a statement. “This has been a great learning experience on best practices and the organization will continue to implement even stronger best practices and to raise its own standards moving forward.”
Daniel Stuebs, Executive Director of American Police Officers Alliance commented, “It is great to hear from the IRS that we have been given a clean bill of health. These results will put to rest any rumors or misconceptions that we do not follow IRS rules with regards to compliance. We will continue our mission to help stand with police officers in a time when they are under constant attack from the mainstream media.”
As mentioned in our recent press release, “This outcome should also be a comfort to all donors, stakeholders, staff and vendors that as a political organization, American Police Officers Alliance is raising and spending funds in accordance with IRS political organization statutes organized under Section 527 and that the organization will be able to continue forward with fulfilling our mission to support our law enforcement within the political process.”
Thank you to all of our donors and grassroots supporters that have helped build our organization and pro-police movement. The work we have been able to accomplish over the last 6 years is all thanks to you.
