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January 28, 2013, 9:59 am
Lobbying Tactics on Postal Issue Splits Nonprofits
The executive director of an association that successfully persuaded a powerful Congressman to commit to preserving discount postage rates for nonprofits lashed out Friday against Independent Sector for formally asking the representative to maintain that position.
Independent Sector and eight of the 600 nonprofits it represents sent a letter on Tuesday to Rep. Darrell Issa requesting his support for the discount rate when he reintroduces legislation for a massive overhaul of the United States Postal Service this year. Mr. Issa committed last year to removing a provision to eliminate the discount that was included in the USPS overhaul bill that Congress ultimately never took up before the end of 2012.
That irked Anthony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, who was frustrated that his 300-member organization was not consulted about sending the letter. He…
January 23, 2013, 9:38 am
Nonprofits Urge Congress to Preserve Discount Postal Rates
Independent Sector and eight other groups asked a powerful Congressional committee Tuesday to preserve discount postage rates for nonprofits as it drafts legislation to change how the U.S. Postal Service works.
The Postal Reform Act of 2011 had proposed eliminating the nonprofit discount, which cost the postal service about $1.3-billion in 2011. The provision was removed last year during Congressional negotiations, but the comprehensive postal bill died. It is expected to be considered again this year by the new Congress.
Independent Sector’s letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, aims to make sure new legislation picks up where last year’s measure left off and keeps the discount in place. Mr. Issa was a key player in removing the threat to the discount.
“We have no reason to believe that [Mr. Issa] has changed his position,…
January 15, 2013, 5:38 pm
Boustany Reappointed Head of House Nonprofit Oversight Panel
Rep. Charles Boustany—a Louisiana Republican who started holding a series of hearings on nonprofit issues last year—has been reappointed chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.
The announcement was made today by Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax-exempt organizations.
Mr. Boustany was re-elected to Congress after winning a runoff election last month that was required by state law because no candidate had won a majority of votes in the November contest.
He held a hearing in July on charities with complicated operations like a profit-generating arm and in May on issues including oversight of universities and hospitals.
Mr. Boustany told The Chronicle last year he was concerned that the IRS had not been aggressive enough in monitoring charity abuses.
Send an e-mail to Suzanne Perry.
January 14, 2013, 9:10 am
How the NAACP Activates Young People for Advocacy
Benjamin Jealous, chief executive of the NAACP, says advocacy organizations too often ignore young people—missing an opportunity to inspire the very supporters who might become most active in promoting a cause.
But Mr. Jealous says his organization has decided to make young people a priority, in part by asking them what they are most passionate about changing in the world and showing them how they can channel frustration about what’s wrong into positive action.
“Listen to them first, find out what they are really angry about, and then say, ‘This is how we turn it outward, and we actually overcome that issue,’” Mr. Jealous says.
In this video, Mr. Jealous talks about how his organization has mobilized young people to protest criminal-justice policies that focus on putting people in prison and explains how other groups can borrow techniques that have helped the NAACP increase it…
January 10, 2013, 9:14 am
Fiscal-Cliff Tax Deal Expected to Boost Charitable Giving
The income-tax provisions adopted by Congress to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” will increase charitable giving by an estimated 1.3 percent, or $3.3-billion, in 2013, according to a new Urban Institute analysis.
The boost will come mainly from the decision to increase the top tax bracket from 35 percent to 39.6 percent on income above $400,000 for individuals ($450,000 for married couples), the institute said.
Because the charitable deduction is tied to a person’s tax bracket, those donors will now save $39.60 in taxes for every $100 they give to charity. In other words, their gift will cost them only $60.40, down from $65 under the 35-percent rate.
People in the top 1 percent of income distribution will provide almost all of the higher giving, increasing their donations by an estimated 6.2 percent, the analysis found.
The study also took into account the decision to…
January 1, 2013, 4:26 pm
Fiscal Cliff Deal Could Hurt Charitable Giving
Legislation the Congress passed Tuesday to avoid the fiscal cliff limits how much wealthy people can claim in deductions for charitable contributions and other spending when they itemize their tax returns.
The legislation raises the top tax rate to 39.6 percent on household incomes above $450,000 but maintains current rates for everyone else, or about 98 percent of all Americans. It also delays for two months the $110-billion in federal spending cuts scheduled for 2013.
Throughout December nonprofits have been lobbying Congress and President Obama not to impose limits on the tax savings wealthy donors get when they make charitable contributions.
The Senate-crafted plan enacts limits that charities have opposed. It reinstates a provision eliminated in 2010 that reduces itemized deductions by 3 percent of the amount that household income exceeds $300,000. Write-offs grow more…
December 21, 2012, 3:57 pm
Nonprofits Fight Obama Call to Curb Charitable Deduction
President Obama’s plan to allow donors to get tax savings of up to 35 percent on their charitable donations may look like an early Christmas gift to nonprofits that have been aggressively lobbying to protect the tax break from any limits. [Editor's note: the previous sentence and other phrases throughout this article have been revised to more precisely describe the Obama plan.]
But to many charity leaders, that proposal, part of the president’s overall $1.2-trillion budget plan presented to Republicans this week, appears to be the same lump of coal as the 28 percent limit he has supported for years.
While the president’s latest budget offer died on arrival in the Republican-controlled House, the sudden emergence of a third option for limiting the charitable deduction proved both promising and troubling to nonprofits.
“For the first time the president has changed his position,â…
December 18, 2012, 6:00 pm
Obama Plan Would Spare Charitable Deduction
Nonprofits seeking to protect charitable deductions may have won at least one victory: President Obama’s budget proposal given to Republicans on Monday appeared to single out the charitable deduction for a more-generous write-off by the wealthy than mortgage interest, state taxes, or other tax breaks.
Republicans rebuffed the president’s overall proposal on Tuesday in the continuing back-and-forth of “fiscal cliff” negotiations. But nonprofit leaders were abuzz with the prospect that their coordinated advocacy to protect the charitable deduction may be paying off.
President Obama has long favored lowering the maximum amount wealthy taxpayers can deduct from their taxes for charitable gifts, from the current 35 percent to 28 percent. That means a $1,000 gift would reap a $280 tax savings instead of $350.
But his proposal Monday called for a 35-percent rate cap for charitable…
December 11, 2012, 8:33 am
Independent Sector Defends Charitable Deduction
Politico, a newspaper widely circulated in Washington, published a two-page ad from Independent Sector on Monday that provided a straightforward message to Congress and President Obama: “Don’t push charities over the fiscal cliff.”
The ad, signed by 945 organizations, urges Congress and the president to “preserve the charitable deduction’s powerful incentive for giving” as they negotiate a deal to avert tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to begin January 2.
“Since 1917, our nation’s tax system has strongly encouraged Americans to give back to their communities, and the broad concept of charity on which the deduction is based has given rise to a diverse and pluralistic set of organizations all dedicated to the public good,” says the ad, which is an excerpt of a letter the nonprofits sent to Mr. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
The ad is part of a broader strategy to…
December 3, 2012, 9:25 am
Charities Would Lose $10-Billion Under Tax Cap, White House Says
President Obama won’ t support an annual limit on deductions, including those for charitable giving, as the White House issued an estimate that such a break would cost charities at least $10-billion a year.
That will come as a relief to nonprofit leaders who say such limits are essentially the same as ending charitable deductions.
Advocates of a cap have said that it could raise $1-trillion over 10 years, the same sum that would come from allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire, as the Obama administration seeks. The Bush cuts mainly lowered the rates for wealthy people, so letting them expire would mainly hit America’s affluent.
The idea of an annual cap on deductions of $25,000 was proposed by Republican Mitt Romney during his failed bid for president. The idea has gained some traction during discussions to avert the massive spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to go…
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