Homeland-Security Grants Cause Controversy
A new federal law providing $25-million for improved security at religious institutions and other nonprofit organizations has placed some Jewish groups at odds with one another. Some groups welcome the effort to help protect vulnerable charities, and others say that accepting the money would set a…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Investigation of NAACP Prompts Criticism by Lawmakers, Legal Experts
The Internal Revenue Service’s investigation of the NAACP and about 60 other charities and churches for possibly breaking federal law on banned political activities has prompted many legal experts and nonprofit officials to worry that the tax status of thousands of charitable groups could now be in…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Denies Deduction for Gift by Estate
An estate cannot take a charitable deduction for making a gift that was first made to the deceased person’s sister, who is a nun, and then to the religious order of which the nun is a member, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled in a case in which it did not identify the people involved. At issue…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Seeks Penalties for Church Politicking
The national office of the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that penalties should be imposed on a church that the tax agency says has engaged in politicking. But the government has stopped short of revoking the church’s tax exemption. At issue was whether the church should lose its charity status…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
President Bush Signs Into Law New Tax Rules on Noncash Gifts
Washington
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Series of nonprofit-supported televised forums allows voters to trade views without trading barbsPoliticians and pollsters may have long ago decided that the presidential race in Connecticut was over, but try telling that to residents who squared off in New Haven this month in a nationally…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Tax Agency to Stress Audits of Charities
As part of a stepped-up effort to monitor nonprofit organizations, the Internal Revenue Service plans to develop a statistical approach to determining which groups are most likely to have committed fraud or financial abuses and therefore should be audited, says Martha Sullivan, the head of the tax…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Gives Approval for New Kind of Gift
The Internal Revenue Service has approved a new type of charitable gift that allows donors to take an immediate tax deduction for the contribution while retaining the ability to oversee how the money is invested in the charity’s behalf. According to the ruling issued by the revenue service, donors…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Two Universities Receive $100-Million Each in Gifts
Two universities each received gifts of $100-million this month: Brown University has been given $100-million from the billionaire businessman Sidney E. Frank to endow a scholarship fund for undergraduate students. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is the beneficiary of a $100-million pledge…
By M.J. Prest and Elizabeth Schwinn