PETA survives IRS audit
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:
NORFOLK – –The Internal Revenue Service
announced on May 16 that a 20-month audit of PETA and
the subsidiary Foundation to Support Animal Protection
found no reason to revoke their tax-exempt status.
FSAP holds two-thirds of the assets under PETA
control according to IRS Form 990, including 75% of the
cash and securities.
FSAP in recent years has paid the mortgage on the
PETA headquarters, has leased the site to PETA, and has
done direct mail fundraising on behalf of PETA. This has
enabled PETA to avoid declaring the full extent and nature
of PETA assets and spending on IRS Form 990.
PETA claimed in fiscal 2003, for example, that
only 14% of its expenditures were for fundraising and
administration, but if FSAP and PETA were seen as a single
fundraising unit, counting the cost of all mailings with
fundraising appeals as fundraising expense, following the
Wise Giving Alliance accounting standard, actual fundrais-
ing and administrative expense came to 50% of budget.
