Taxpayers for Common Sense

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
521941122
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2025468500
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Public Finance, Taxation, Monetary Policy

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$1,808,458
Expenses
$1,946,821
Assets
$2,090,475
Liabilities
$54,669

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • AUTUMN HANNA (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • STEPHEN ELLIS (PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • STEPHEN ELLIS (PRESIDENT): $192,245 total reported compensation
  • AUTUMN HANNA (VICE PRESIDENT): $190,506 total reported compensation
  • JOSHUA SEWELL (DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND P): $141,639 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The mission of taxpayers for common sense (tcs) is to achieve a government that spends taxpayer dollars responsibly and operates within its means. We work with the public, policymakers, and the media to increase transparency of the federal budget; expose and eliminate wasteful subsidies, earmarks, and corporate welfare; and monitor decisionmakers.

What it reported doing in 2024

Environmental and natural resources program - tcs works to ensure that the federal government manages taxpayer assets of public lands and waters in a manner that protects their value, delivers a fair return from private interest use, and avoids long term liabilities for the taxpayer. This includes work documenting taxpayer costs and liabilities associated with climate change and ways to mitigate those costs with less burden on future taxpayers. Tcs educates the public and policy makers about energy and natural resources policy, climate chabge impacts and policy, and works to eliminate harmful and wasteful spending that creates long term costs for taxpayers. Tcs covers a wide range of energy, public lands, and resources issues, producing and distributing educational materials such as, federal subsidies for biofuels and biomass energy; doe loan guarantee program; the cost of speculation in federal oil and gas leases; tcs routinely presents comments on administration rules and testifies before the house and senate. Reports, fact sheets, and analysis are made available to the public through the tcs website and are actively promoted through social media.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 84
  • Transparency & Controls: 65
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 30
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.9%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 84.4%; rating input score 84
  • Fundraising efficiency: $14.55 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Missing
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -7.7%; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.07; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 60; 60th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34.1%; rating input score 5; 5th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 2.6% per year; rating input score 100; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.8% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.9% of revenue deployed · 84.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $1.6M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $192K · 13 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $242K reported
  • Consistency: 29 of 29 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
  • Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 50/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 5/100.