Tax Agency Adjusts Rules on Charitable Deductions
The Internal Revenue Service has announced several changes affecting charitable donations for the 2006 tax year, updating tax rules to take inflation into account. One change affects the way donors calculate their charitable deductions. Federal law allows donors to take deductions only for the…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
President Bush Seeks Charity Tax Breaks
The federal budget proposal President Bush submitted to Congress this month could have an impact on how much charities raise in private donations. As he has done for the past several years, Mr. Bush proposed a package of tax incentives designed to spur charitable giving. He also asked Congress to…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Bush’s Proposed Budget Could Hit Charities Hard
Washington The federal budget President Bush has proposed for 2007 marks another step in his long-range effort to shrink government spending and could result in significant cuts to the federal ALSO SEE: The Nonprofit World and President Bush’s Budget: Key Proposals programs on which many charities…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Mass. Lawmakers Reject Disclosure by Congregations
Lawmakers in Massachusetts have voted down a bill that would have required churches and other houses of worship to file annual financial reports with state authorities in the same manner as other charities. The organizations would also have had to file lists of real-estate holdings. The…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Hospitals Oppose Plan to Require Charity Care
Nonprofit hospitals in Illinois are fighting a proposal by the state’s attorney general that would require them to spend at least 8 percent of their total operating costs on charity care each year to retain their state tax exemptions. Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who made the proposal last month,…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Two Churches in Ohio Accused of Playing Politics
A group of Christian and Jewish religious leaders have asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate two large evangelical churches in Ohio, charging that they are breaking federal law by engaging in political activities. The ministers, rabbis, and other leaders from 31 Ohio churches and…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Credit-Counseling Groups May Lose Tax Exemptions
The Internal Revenue Service plans to revoke the tax-exempt status of a total of 30 nonprofit credit-counseling organizations. The IRS says the groups are not providing adequate financial education to their clients in some cases and in other cases funnel too much money to their chief executives and…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Charities Need More Help From IRS, Official Says
More than a third of the charities and other tax-exempt groups that call the IRS seeking help don’t get it, according to a new report by a key revenue-service official. The toll-free help line of the IRS’s tax-exempt division replies to only 60 percent of the requests it receives, according to Nina…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Releases Data on Foundations, Charities
Charitable spending by foundations fell in 2002 for the second year in a row, according to a new IRS report. In 2002, 73,255 private foundations distributed $26.3-billion for grants and other charitable purposes, a decline of 4 percent from the amount awarded in 2001. Foundations spent…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Charitable Deductions Rise, Says IRS Report
New statistics released by the Internal Revenue Service show that deductions claimed for charitable contributions rose from $140.6-billion in 2002 to an estimated $145.7-billion in 2003, an increase of 3.6 percent. The increase marks the second straight year that charitable deductions rose, after…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor