Congresswomen ask IRS to look at Golden Globes group’s tax exempt status

Greater than a yr after a Los Angeles Occasions investigation into the Hollywood International Press Assn., a pair of congresswomen have despatched a letter to the Inner Income Service, asking for an investigation into the group’s tax-exempt standing.

“For greater than a yr, leisure and nationwide media retailers have detailed the seemingly corrupt and unacceptable deal making patterns of HFPA,” wrote Rep. Joyce Beatty (D–Ohio), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. Brenda L. Lawrence (D–Mich.), vice chair of the Home Committee on Appropriations, in a letter Monday.

“We imagine at minimal, HFPA’s present management has colluded to learn themselves, both straight or not directly and subsequently violated the IRS statute,” they wrote.

Additional, they famous the group’s “failure to embrace sturdy range and inclusion practices that we are actually seeing being applied in Hollywood and throughout all enterprise and authorities sectors.”

The Occasions investigation raised questions concerning the group behind the Golden Globes’ monetary and moral conduct and revealed that not one of the affiliation’s then 87-members was Black.

The report discovered that the nonprofit HFPA often points substantial funds to its personal members in ways in which some specialists say may run afoul of Inner Income Service tips. HFPA members collected practically $2 million in funds from the group in its fiscal yr ending in June 2020 for serving on numerous committees and performing different duties — greater than double the extent three years earlier.

The HFPA has beforehand mentioned its employment-related bills are modest relative to the group’s dimension and consistent with practices of different nonprofit organizations.

Final yr, NBC pulled the plug on the 2022 Golden Globes broadcast. The community’s determination adopted a boycott of the HFPA by a contingent of highly effective publicists and Netflix, Amazon and Amazon Studios’ saying they have been slicing ties with the affiliation.

Reps. Beatty and Lawrence mentioned that they’d solely lately turn into conscious of a number of points surrounding the affiliation.

Within the final yr, the HFPA has deployed an array of reforms together with new bylaws and insurance policies concerning members’ journey and presents; it has additionally admitted 21 new members, together with six who’re Black, and employed a chief range officer.

In an announcement to The Occasions, the HFPA mentioned it was “extraordinarily disillusioned to have learn concerning the issues from Representatives Beatty and Lawrence within the media,” saying they’d not reached out to the group to debate the matter. “Sadly, it appears their letter is taken largely from earlier information accounts which have misrepresented or omitted the numerous and thorough progress made in bringing on numerous members in any respect ranges and the imposition of strict new tips banning all presents and implementation [of] new ethics and conduct guidelines. We sit up for the chance to sharing our progress with the Representatives and their employees quickly.”

The Wrap was the primary to report on the letter, which additionally cited a February report by the commerce publication that highlighted alleged self-dealing and conflicts of curiosity by HFPA representatives.