June 10, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amid growing Congressional criticism of how charities operate, the Senate Finance Committee last week announced that it plans to hold a hearing on June 22 to discuss proposals to tighten regulation of nonprofit organizations.
The chairman of the committee, Sen. Charles R. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he arranged the hearing because “lately, more and more tax problems involving charitable giving have come out.”
One topic expected to be covered in the hearing: charities that make loans to their officers or trustees, particularly those cases in which donors receive loans from the charities they created. The Chronicle revealed the extent of nonprofit loans to their officers in a special report that was published on February 5.
Senator Grassley said the committee wants to look at transactions “which may be inappropriately exploiting charities’ tax-exempt status and which may be unfairly enriching individuals and corporations.”
The hearing will also cover what the senator referred to as “governance and best practices of charities.”
The committee’s staff members have also been investigating a wide range of land deals involving the Nature Conservancy, along with other non-cash donations to charity and the hearing is expected to include testimony about the use and possible abuse of such contributions, including land, works of art, intellectual property, and automobiles.
Senator Grassley said Internal Revenue Commissioner Mark Everson is expected to testify. The committee has not announced who else will testify.
Updated information about the hearing will be made available on the committee’s Web site, http://www.finance.senate.gov.
