Senator Questions Tax Breaks for Athletics Donations

Sen. Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, plans to investigate whether donors should receive tax deductions for contributing to university athletics departments, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

An aide to Mr. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, told the newspaper that the senator wants to ask the Internal Revenue Service whether it is comfortable that booster clubs and sports programs “have met the requirement of being a charity.”

The concerns come in response to a Chronicle article detailing how contributions to university sports programs are growing at the expense of donations to academic programs on some campuses.

In a written statement, Mr. Grassley expressed concern about reports that top donors are being rewarded with perquisites like free seats on team planes. “I wonder what the public gets out of that,” he said.