This organization has an $800 million budget. It has an investment portfolio of $910 million, which earned $60 million in 2003. It earn $77 million a year from advertising in its publications. It also earns $300 million each year from royalties. It raked in $24 million in 2003 from short-term securities from the float on monies collected. It also collects $300 million in annual dues from its members.
And it pays no corporate income tax because it’s a non-partisan, tax-exempt organization which is also (get this) subsidized by tens of millions from the federal government. Plus, it’s one of the largest lobbying organizations in the country, if not the largest.
This is your AARP. It is a biased organization that should not assume, in any way, that it represents its constituency. It does not represent me, and I am no longer a member. AARP is a business and should be paying corporate taxes like any other for-profit company. Will it happen? Probably not, since it is too influential in its lobbying efforts.
On a recent trip up north, my wife and I stopped at a popular motel chain and we received a senior’s discount without evidence of AARP membership. Obviously, AARP is not needed.
AARP is a profit-making business and should be taxed as such. It is cheating the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. This is dishonest, and you and I are paying for it. If you agree with me, please contact our two state senators and our representative and request them to submit legislation which will require AARP to pay taxes and remove its tax-exempt status.
Monroe M. Diefendorf
Pinehurst
