It's a shame, really

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

The IRS just issued an announcement (Announcement 2009-17).  To spare you the pain of actually reading it, allow me to summarize.

Basically, the IRS is suspending the tax exempt status for any organization that has been designated as supporting or engaging in terrorist activity or supporting terrorism.  As a result, contributions made to such an organization during the suspension period are not deductible for federal tax purposes.  

How does this affect you?  You can't deduct any donations to Al Qaeda or groups such as these.  What a shame.

Is this really a concern?  Are there really that many Americans donating to organizations like this and then trying to deduct those donations on their tax returns?  Or, if you are an organization like that, are you really trying to get U.S. tax exempt status?  You know, Al Capone was finally caught because of tax problems... he could hide from the FBI, but he couldn't hide from the IRS.  Maybe that's the secret to catching terrorists.  

Okay, so maybe this isn't really that funny, but I thought it was funny.