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Tag Archives: Taxes
May 9, 2012, 9:55 pm
Congressional Hearing to Examine Nonprofit Tax Issues
A Congressional hearing has been scheduled next week to examine various tax issues affecting nonprofits, including Internal Revenue Service oversight of universities and nonprofit hospitals.
Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a Louisiana Republican, called the hearing. He told The Chronicle this winter he was concerned the tax agency had not been aggressive enough in monitoring charity abuses.
The event, which will take place May 16 at 10 a.m., will be the first in a series of hearings on tax-exempt organizations planned by the oversight subcommittee of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. Boustany, the subcommittee chairman, said in a statement that the hearing would allow nonprofits to weigh in on certain questions he had raised in a letter he sent to the IRS last October.
They include IRS audits of universities in areas including excessive compensation and unrelated …
February 7, 2012, 5:48 pm
Preserving Charity Tax Breaks Won’t Be Main Goal of Nonprofit Coalition
Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits and foundations that has waged a vigorous campaign against proposals to limit the charitable deduction for wealthy people, has now decided to devote more attention to other aspects of budget and tax policy that could harm poor people.
Critics have accused Independent Sector and other nonprofit advocates of spending a disproportionate amount of energy protecting the charitable tax break, given other critical issues facing the nation, especially those affecting vulnerable people.
Diana Aviv, the group’s chief executive, said Independent Sector’s board “sympathized with that point of view.” It adopted a series of “guiding principles” last week, saying it plans to promote policies to cut the nation’s deficit and overhaul the tax code that do not “exacerbate income inequality or increase poverty.”
The principles, which were sent to the or…
October 19, 2011, 10:38 am
Video: Arts Leaders Take to Capitol Hill to Talk About Tax Breaks
Arts leaders traveled to Capitol Hill this fall to speak out against possible changes to the tax code that would affect charitable giving.
The lobbying effort, which was organized by the Alliance for Charitable Reform, a project by the organization Philanthropy Roundtable, focused largely on a White House plan to place new limits on the tax breaks wealthy donors receive for charitable gifts.
President Obama had proposed limiting to 28 percent the write-offs that wealthy people can get for their itemized deductions as part of his September jobs bill. Today donors in the top tax bracket get write-offs of 35 percent.
Senate Democrats rejected that idea, but it’s likely the proposal could resurface. As a result, some nonprofit leaders are stepping up their efforts to speak out against the plan.
You can see what arts leaders think about tax issues in this video.
You can…
July 18, 2011, 5:58 pm
Proposal Takes Aim at Charities That Avoid Taxes Offshore
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced legislation that would deny some federal money to charities that put money in offshore accounts to avoid paying income taxes.
The Iowa senator has proposed barring such charities from getting grants from a federal program that helps prisoners re-enter society. The proposal follows an inquiry that he and several other lawmakers conducted last year into Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Mr. Grassley’s move—an amendment to a bill pending in the Judiciary Committee to extend the so-called Second Chance Act—takes aim at unrelated business income tax, or UBIT. Those are taxes that charities owe on income they earn from businesses that are not directly tied to their charitable missions.
While moving money offshore to avoid those taxes isn’t illegal, Mr. Grassley said in a statement…
June 29, 2011, 9:24 am
Charities Warned of ‘a Tsunami’ Over Tax Issues
Nonprofits should pay more attention to the questions that federal policy makers are asking about the tax breaks that benefit charities, says Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, the coalition of charities and foundations.
Partly because of budget pressures, both President Obama and Congress are conducting an “extensive look at the sector the likes of which I don’t think we’ve seen in 50 years,” Ms. Aviv said in an interview with The Chronicle. “And the biggest danger of all of this is that nobody’s paying attention.”
Ms. Aviv cited President Obama’s proposal to limit the value of the charitable deduction for wealthy taxpayers, the desire of Mr. Obama and prominent lawmakers to simplify the tax code, and questions that Congressional aides have been asking about how tax law should treat “hybrid” organizations–those combining aspects of both nonprofit and…
April 8, 2011, 7:51 pm
IRS Warns of Tax Abuses Involving Nonprofits
As tax season ticks down, the IRS is warning Americans not to abuse deductions for charitable giving.
The IRS, in its annual list of the year’s “dirty dozen” tax scams, says that attempts to abuse charitable organizations and deductions are among the most common efforts to skirt the tax code.
In some cases, this means that taxpayers are using charities to shield income from taxation, often by inflating the value of donated assets or income from donated property.
The tax agency said it has also been investigating schemes involving the donation of products and other noncash items by multiple groups that claim the full value for giving and receiving the same contribution. These donations are often highly overvalued—therefore allowing a bigger tax deduction—or the recipient allows the donor to repurchase the items at a later date.
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