In an email to Attorney General Alan Wilson, Skip Hoagland points out misuse of Atax funds by DMOs.
"Ag Wilson, not only is the town Dmos illegal, the Chambers and Cvbs are illegal, many laws state and federal being violated. Including SC non profit corporation act laws, unfair trade, business and competitive practices, Irs ubit tax evasion, state constitutional law using public tax funds for private purposes.
Sc code is illegal a Dmo can’t be a non profit Chamber, this violates the federal Irs 501-c6 non profit tax code. Irs is very specific a non profit can’t be in any business normally carried on by for profits. Read it …A non profit and government is supposed to help members and tax payers, not compete to put them out of business
Atax funded Dmo job to promote the destination must be done in-house and the town hire an ad agency, local media, local newspaper would make a perfect Dmo, for every city in the state and nationwide, and must be bid out under procurement. The only better choice for a Dmo besides the newspapers would be the City.com brand owner.
Example Hiltonhead.com, Charleston.com, Bluffton.com , Beaufort.com etc
Also note the state Dmo job with funding of over 100 million by SCprt hires an ad agency not a non profit, and also owns the state website discoversouthcarolina.com that should be .gov not a .com commercial venture.
So why does only illegal non profits qualify and allowed to own the websites like hiltonheadisland.org and worse break the laws to sell advertising for profits
This violates both state laws and federal Irs non profit tax laws
Sc is broken and the tax scams need to end"
See Attached File: AG Opinion on Atax DMO Funding - 053122.pdf