Rep. Louise Slaughter is calling for an Internal Revenue Service investigation of a private family foundation established by Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

She cites a recent Washington Post article that

while Mike Leavitt alone has claimed about $1.2 million in tax write-offs since 2000, the foundation gave away only $49,000 in 2002 and $52,000 the next year, according to tax returns and other documents filed by the foundation.

Senator Frist said, “It's just this simple: The pensions bill is must-pass. Must-pass!” He added, “The Senate must clear the pensions bill, clean, so the President can sign it this month. We will act, and pensions will get done, without amendment.”

For more, see www.501cstrategies.com.

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 04:17:01 PM



Charities React to the Charitable Reforms/Incentives
From BNA:

The big fear had been that all the incentives in H.R. 4 might disappear and there would only be reforms left, United Way Public Policy Director Patrick Lester told BNA July 31.

"We were in danger of seeing most of these charitable provisions be used to offset tax cuts for the business community, rather than coming back to charities in any way." Because the reforms raise revenue, they could have been used for other purposes, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) insisted on pumping any gains back into the charitable incentives.

The Internal Revenue Service has asked nonprofit groups and others to comment on how the agency should enforce a law Congress passed last month to impose steep fines on charities, churches, and other tax-exempt groups that participate in abusive tax shelters.

As discussed in a previous blog entry, H.R. 4 contains charitable incentives and reforms. For a summary of those provisions, see the Council on Foundations analysis.

Posted by Jennifer Lowe, 11:02:42 AM