Congress Approves Increase in National-Service Budget
Congress has agreed to give the AmeriCorps national-service program $444-million for the 2004 fiscal year, $170-million more than last year. The move was a sharp contrast to decisions Congress made earlier in the year, when lawmakers refused to provide additional funds for the program amid reports…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
The IRS has proposed revising the tax rates assessed on money a donor receives from a charitable remainder trust. Through such trusts, a donor contributes assets and then receives regular payouts from a charity. The payouts are taxed based on a donor’s income and the type of asset put into the…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Poll Finds Holiday Shoppers Hope to Help Charities
Sixty percent of Americans say they plan to buy at least one product this holiday season from a company that promises to give a percentage of the purchase price to charity, compared with 58 percent who said they would do so in 2002. The poll -- commissioned by Cone, a Boston-based company that…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
IRS Criticized Over Review Process
The Internal Revenue Service has abolished a process through which it restored the tax-exempt status it had stripped from two groups tied to Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House. But ending the independent-review process has not stopped speculation that the IRS’s decision to restore…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Web Site Started to Aid Electronic Filing
A coalition of nonprofit groups has started a Web site to provide information to charities that want to file their federal Form 990 informational tax returns online. The site provides news and information from the Internal Revenue Service, state offices that regulate charities, certified public…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
A group of organizations opposing permanent repeal of the estate tax has released a report that says such a repeal would cause states to lose an average of $187-million annually in donations. The report, “The Estate Tax and Charitable Giving: State-by-State Analysis,” is available online at…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Cancer Group Thrives After Near-Death in 1992
White Plains, N.Y. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has steadily climbed the Philanthropy 400 rankings since 1995, ALSO SEE:DATABASE: Philanthropy 400 ResultsSurviving Tough TimesCHARTS: The 400 at a GlanceDoing the Numbers: How the Philanthropy 400 Survey Was CompiledNewly Rich Poetry Group Faces…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
New law forces charities to rethink fund raising by phoneIndianapolis’s public-broadcasting station, WFYI-TV, used to count on getting about $120,000 a year from phone ALSO SEE:New Telemarketing Rules: a Primer appeals to potential donors. This year, it has raised only $30,000 from such…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Group Urges Donations of Federal Tax Refunds
As the Treasury Department mails millions of tax-rebate checks to families with children this month, a nonprofit group that opposes the $330-billion in federal tax cuts enacted this year is urging people to donate their rebates to charity and petition the government to stop what it calls…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor
Court Reduces Value of Charitable Deductions
A new tax-court decision suggests that the Internal Revenue Service continues to keep a sharp watch on taxpayers who claim large charitable deductions on their income-tax returns. In the case, the U.S. Tax Court reduced by thousands of dollars a couple’s charitable deductions for gifts of land and…
By Elizabeth Schwinn
Contributor