# Internal Revenue Code The **Internal Revenue Code (IRC)** is the codified body of United States federal tax law — Title 26 of the U.S. Code. Administered by the [[IRS]] and interpreted through Treasury regulations and the federal courts, it is the single most consequential statute in American political economy: it defines what income is, how it is taxed, and — critically for this knowledge base — it *creates* every tax-exempt and political-money entity the vault tracks. The [[501(c)(3)]] charity, the [[501(c)(4)]] social-welfare organization, the [[527 Organization]] political committee, the private foundation, and the rest are all creatures of specific IRC sections; their differing disclosure and political-activity rules are the reason "dark money" flows the way it does. ## Structure and major rewrites The Code is organized into subtitles (income, estate and gift, employment, excise, etc.), and within them the section numbers — 501(c)(3), 527, 162, 199A — have become shorthand in political and policy debate. Three rewrites define its modern shape: - **The Internal Revenue Code of 1954** — the first comprehensive recodification, which established the section-numbering system still in use and created the modern architecture of tax-exempt organizations. - **The Tax Reform Act of 1986** — a sweeping, genuinely bipartisan overhaul that broadened the base and lowered rates, the last time such a grand bargain was struck. - **The [[Tax Cuts and Jobs Act]] (2017)** — the signature tax law of the first Trump term, which cut the corporate rate, created the pass-through deduction (§199A), and capped the state-and-local-tax deduction, reshaping the incentives that drive both business structure and political giving. ## Why it matters for the knowledge base The IRC is the operating system beneath much of what the vault documents. The rules governing tax exemption determine which advocacy organizations must disclose donors and which may keep them secret; the rules governing deductibility shape philanthropy and the donor class; and the perennial campaign to cut taxes, narrow the [[IRS]]'s enforcement capacity, and rewrite the Code in favor of capital is a core project of the [[Anti-Tax Movement]]. Understanding the political right's money machinery requires understanding which IRC sections enable it. ## See Also - [[IRS]] — the agency that administers the Code - [[501(c)(4)]] / [[527 Organization]] — entity types it creates - [[Tax Cuts and Jobs Act]] — the major modern rewrite - [[Anti-Tax Movement]] — the politics of rewriting it - [[Income Tax]] — the central tax it codifies - [[Tax Code Hub]] — folder reader map