I want to be a nonprofit entity!

I just read Michael Grunwald's piece in a recent "Time" magazine, and it made me think and also laugh. It was concerning charities who say they are non profit and should qualify as tax-exempt social welfare organizations which the Tea Party says are tax-exempt political organizations that don't have to reveal their donors. Upon researching social-welfare organizations it was found that most of them weren't political at all. So why should they be tax exempt? There are many retail businesses that start up and never make it. They are tax exempt through no fault of their own! No one should need a tax exemption unless he has profits he needs to shelter which many do. To quote this article: "In 2012, the US had 1,616,053 tax-exempt organizations, 10 times the number of fast-food restaurants. Harvard University is tax exempt even though it has a $31 billion endowment; it's basically a huge hedge fund with a lucrative merchandising operation attached to a school." I'm wondering why the tax exemption deal ever started. Why doesn't the IRS simply tax moneymaking people and businesses and stop with the tax exemptions which are way out of line. People could then donate whatever they wanted to needy organizations. I think the term "nonprofit" should be done away with because the nonprofit organizations make serious money and their CEOs get a huge part of it. So where does the nonprofit part come in? I think Michael Grunwald wrote a great article and I wish I were as smart as he.

After reading his piece, I decided I would go to Google and see how I could become a nonprofit person. I already am . . . but legally with benefits. So I googled "nonprofits" and the first thing that came up was an ad for Legal Zoom. I have seen that on TV many times  and was surprised to see it was headed by Robert Shapiro, although I shouldn't have been surprised. He headed the defense for OJ Simpson when he killed his wife and he got him acquitted. So now he's gone on to bigger and better things. I found that I could form a nonprofit in 3 easy steps. There would be no federal income tax on nonprofit activities, I could receive tax-deductible donations and get discounted rates of postage. I could do those 3 easy steps with no sweat. However, the whole thing sounds a little sleazy to me, probably because of Robert Shapiro. But the discounted postage is a selling point! I discussed this with my daughters, and Teri was excited about the tax-deductible donation part, but Cindy had to think it all over seriously. She wasn't into making snap decisions. So this is the picture of the three of us deciding whether or not Legal Zoom was for us. As it turned out, it wasn't.