The Most Inscrutable Sentence in the Tax Code

In honor of tax-return time, a blast from the past. The source: Ronald Reagan's June 7, 1986 radio address plugging tax reform.

I'd like to read to you from a very famous U.S. Government document: "For purposes of Paragraph (3), an organization described in Paragraph (2) shall be deemed to include an organization described in Section 501(c) (4), (5), or (6) which would be described in Paragraph (2) if it were an organization described in Section 509(a)(3).'' Not exactly the Declaration of Independence or Lincoln's second inaugural. No, it's the last sentence in section 509(a) of -- you guessed it -- the Internal Revenue Code.