Write-Offs

June 18, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute

A committee of nonprofit experts that advises the Internal Revenue Service is recommending that the agency improve the tax rules governing international grant making. “While the longstanding framework for cross-border philanthropy functions well, it can and should be updated to simplify compliance and clarify areas of uncertainty,” said a report by the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities. The report is available at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/tege_act_rpt8.pdf.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a civil-liberties watchdog group, has asked the IRS to investigate Liberty University after the university dropped its official recognition of a student Democratic Party club. Within days, on behalf of Liberty University, Liberty Counsel — a nonprofit litigation, education, and policy organization — asked the IRS to investigate Americans United, saying that the group “has essentially become an arm of the Democratic Party.” Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.