The Clarion Fund, an advocacy group with a mission “to educate Americans about issues of national security,” has been accused of violating rules that prohibit nonprofit organizations from direct partisan political activity.

On its Web site, the fund says it is a nonpartisan organization.

The controversy erupted when the fund distributed millions of copies of a DVD about Muslim terrorists titled, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.”

The move prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington, to file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission that says the DVD was meant to benefit Sen. John McCain’s election efforts.

Gregory Ross, a spokesman for the Clarion Fund, told The Chronicle that the organization has not been contacted by the elections commission and denies any wrongdoing. “We have maintained to the letter of the law what we can and ...

Leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have announced they will adjourn without reconciling a set of tax breaks, including several measures that would affect charitable giving, with a bill passed earlier this month by the Senate.

After several months of difficult negotiations, the Senate early last week passed its version of legislation that would renew a variety of tax breaks, such as allowing older donors to get a tax break when they give charities money from their individual retirement accounts.

Until December 31 of last year, donors age 70 1/2 or older were able to transfer up to $100,000 to charity from their individual retirement accounts each year without paying income taxes on the money. The Senate’s legislation would renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extend it to the end of 2009.

Additional provisions in the Senate legislation would renew and...

By a vote of 93 to 2, the Senate has passed legislation that would renew and extend several tax provisions affecting charitable giving.

One key provision would allow older donors to get a tax break when they give charities money from their individual retirement accounts.

The House of Representatives now will review the Senate legislation. In May, the House passed its own bill that would renew and extend tax provisions, including the one for IRAs. The Senate and House differ over how the legislation should be paid for and would have to agree before Congress could pass final legislation.

Until December 31 of last year, donors age 70 1/2 or older were able to transfer up to $100,000 to charity from their individual retirement accounts each year without paying income taxes on the money.

The Senate-passed legislation would renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and...

The top two presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, have agreed to co-sponsor a bill to expand the country’s national-service programs and provide money to help nonprofit groups recruit volunteers and replicate innovative programs.

The Serve America Act, which would more than triple participation in year-long national-service programs like AmeriCorps by 2013 and create several new federal programs, was unveiled a little over a week ago at the ServiceNation Summit in New York.

The bill — drawn up by Sens. Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah — has also attracted as co-sponsors Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut; Hillary Clinton, Democrat of New York; and Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi.

The full text of the bill, S. 3487, is now available, providing more detail about the proposals,...

The Internal Revenue Service has released its list of 314 projects that it plans to complete before the end of June 2009, including 11 items that would directly affect tax-exempt organizations.

Included in the agency’s to-do list for nonprofit groups are finalizing the regulations for the new Form 990, proposed rules and penalties for donor-advised funds, and new disclosure requirements for tax-exempt organizations that participate in tax shelters.

The Internal Revenue Service will offer a Webcast on November 4 to explain important changes in the new Form 990, the income and spending disclosures form required for most tax-exempt organizations.

The presentation includes a panel of tax experts, including IRS officials Ronald J. Schultz, a senior technical advisor at the agency, and Stephen Clarke, a tax-law specialist.

With both John McCain and Barack Obama promising to expand national service, a former president applauds their efforts.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Bill Clinton said the next president should make volunteerism an integral part of citizenship.

“In an interdependent world, being a good citizen involves more than being an informed voter and paying your legal taxes,” he said. “You should make contributions, not just of money, but of time.”

Mr. Clinton said that expanding AmeriCorps — the national service program he founded while in office — would be a good way to encourage philanthropy.

Listen to The Chronicle’s interview with the former president, in which he discusses the upcoming Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the controversy about anonymous donors to his presidential library, and why he enjoys philanthropy more than politics.

The American Civil Liberties Union announced today its “I’m a Constitution Voter” campaign, which seeks to get Americans to pledge to consider civil-liberty concerns when they enter the voting booth in November to choose the next president.

On its Web site, the group asks visitors to sign a petition that demands that the next occupant of the White House close the Guantánamo Bay prison, among other moves.

In issues related to the nonprofit world, the organization also wants the next president to examine government-supported religious social-service programs to make sure they do not violate the Constitution and end “monitoring” by law-enforcement agencies of political activists.

In a related move, the ONE Campaign, an antipoverty group in Washington, is trying to influence next week’s presidential debate in Mississippi. The group wants supporters to sign a petition to persuade the ...

Key Democratic and Republican Senators have worked out a measure to renew and extend several tax provisions affecting charitable giving, including one that allows older donors to get a tax break when they give charities money from their individual retirement accounts.

Until December 31 of last year, donors age 70 1/2 or older were able to transfer up to $100,000 to charity from their individual retirement accounts each year without paying income taxes on the money.

Senators have agreed to renew the provision retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extend it to the end of 2009.

Additional provisions in the legislation would renew and extend other breaks related to charitable giving, including special deductions that businesses may take for gifts of food and donations of books and computers to schools.

The legislation also has provisions that would create tax incentives for...

A top aide to U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley has said the Internal Revenue Service currently has the authority to tighten the requirements on nonprofit hospitals for retaining their tax-exempt status. But she said the senator also is considering legislation to achieve that end.

Theresa Pattara, a counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, where Senator Grassley is the ranking Republican, made her comments last week to the American Health Lawyers Association. The definitions of how much “community benefit” hospitals must provide were loosened by the IRS in 1965, she said.

Senator Grassley has repeatedly expressed concern that nonprofit hospitals are operating too much like for-profit entities and turning away too many uninsured and under-insured patients. A 2007 report by the IRS estimated that 79 percent of the tax-exempt hospitals spent 10 percent or less of their revenues on care...