United Cancer Council, Inc., Petitioner-Appellant, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent-Appellee., 165 F.3d 1173

Summary

Respondent agency revoked petitioner corporation's charitable exemption to collect tax exempt donations. After the lower court upheld respondent's ruling, petitioner sought review. On appeal, the court noted that, for petitioner's fundraiser to be considered an insider, the court looked to the reality of control rather than the insider's place in a formal table of the organization. The court reversed revocation of petitioner's charitable exemption and remanded because it could find nothing in the facts to support respondent's theory and the lower court's finding that a fundraiser seized control of petitioner and by doing so became an insider, triggering an inurement provision and destroying the exemption. The court added that there was nothing that corporate or agency law would recognize as control.