Virginia Governor Ends Tax Breaks for Confederate Groups

I’m sorry, why exactly were we giving tax breaks to groups celebrating literal traitors to the United States in the first place? The fact that it took until 2026 to put an end to this is absolutely insane.

It is kind of amazing that in 2026 we are still debating tax breaks for groups that exist to promote dead traitors who fought for the cause of owning humans as property.

Confederates were truly some of the worst people in history. 

“America” means different things to different people.

Conservatives will tell you non-fash “hate America” because they want equality for nonwhite people, women, LGBTQ people, poor people, people with disabilities, and [atheists | Muslims | Jews | Hindus | Buddhists | *woke* Christians | etc].

For them, “America” doesn’t mean freedom (for everyone) and equality or democracy and the Constitution. For conservatives, “America” means a violently enforced caste system. Their fabled “golden age” is the Jim Crow America of racial segregation, thousands of lynchings, violence against Jews and LGBTQ people, and strict limits on the freedoms of women.

So for conservatives, the brutal and bloody Confederacy looks a lot more like “America” than any diverse and productive modern American city.

Would love people to stop linking pay walled articles.

I guess we just have to go off the title.

Nice – love that for them!

Common Spanberger W

Good, fuck those traitors

Just sack up and finish reconstruction already.

My governor

Finally! I applaud you!

What?

Crazy knowing how big of a slave state Virginia use to be, and then seeing this headline. Keep up the momentum.

There seems to be misunderstanding of the bill in a lot of places, so repurposing a reply I wrote to put at the top. This bill does NOT impact the ability of these organizations to gain tax-exempt status as a non-profit. What it does is remove them from a list of specific, named organizations that were granted exemptions by law automatically. The list was more than just these so-called “Confederate Heritage” organizations, and many remain on the list, mostly veterans groups like the VFW, particularly prominent outreach orgs like 4-H, or historical like Colonial Williamsburg (and even a few which have Confederate aspects remain… “Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation” seems to have avoided the ax for instance). I didn’t do a count, but eyeballing the law, I’d say there are about 50-60 groups there, most of which are entirely unobjectionable, and to which there is no issue in having them be recognized by the state with specific, named exemptions. While I don’t run a non-profit, I have to imagine getting this carve-out is helpful in reducing paperwork and such these groups would otherwise have, so gives them a small assist in their work.

Basically, it meant that those named groups could benefit from being tax-exempt automatically because they were named by law. But it is not a list of the *only groups* which can benefit from tax-exemption in Virginia, just the ones that get special, automatic treatment. Removal of the groups from the list does *not* automatically make them no longer tax exempt. *As long as* they meet the requirements for a 503(c) org, as far as I understand, they will still retain non-profit status, and the requisite tax exemptions that come with it. Some of these groups I assume meet those requirements, so won’t actually be substantially impacted, the only real difference being, I expect, the paperwork necessary to show Virginia they are in compliance when they file their taxes.

But again, this is not a bill that specifically targets these groups to prevent them from being able to be non-profits. It is a bill that only removes them from a specific list of groups which Virginia specifically deems worth having special, named exemption.

The bill summary, and a link to the full text PDF, [is published here](https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB167) for anyone who wants to see for themselves, but the *only* changes are removal of those organizations name from the list, and then the renumbering of the lines where that has impacted.

Good. Fuck them traitors.

Since MAGA loves saying these people were Democrats, I’m sure they will all support this move!

Do those numbnutz even pay any taxes? They are normally far too stupid and meth-addled to hold down a job.

“The new law’s most significant target is the United Daughters of the Confederacy, founded in 1894 for descendants of Confederates. The organization’s stated purpose is to honor the members’ ancestors through, among other things, working with homeless shelters, food banks and other civic groups. ”

The horror, working with food banks and homeless shelters.

wtf Virginia

Omg, this was a thing?! Why was this allowed?

If they bitch, just say we are eliminating waste and fraud