The National Committee on Planned Giving has released standards for determining the value of all types of planned gifts to charitable organizations. Unlike present value computations for income, gift and estate tax compliance purposes, the new valuation standards are intended to help charitable organizations and donors understand the value of irrevocable and revocable planned gifts in terms of their present purchasing power.

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On December 10th, the Senate Finance Committee released a legislative discussion draft that would enact new oversight and governance standards for charities, and charged Independent Sector with convening a panel to comment formally on the plan. Today, Charitable Accord, a nonprofit organization that works in the interests of charitable organizations on legislative matters urged interested parties to review the proposal and respond with their comments.  MORE »

As some of the popular news programs report, it's only 1,430 days until the next presidential election! With that in mind, in this special report from Tax Analysts, Alan L. Kennard of the St. Louis office of Husch & Eppenberger LLC reviews the rules in the tax code governing political activity by public charities.  MORE »

From an investment standpoint, the Achilles' heel of charitable remainder trusts is unrelated business taxable income. The presence of even one dollar of UBTI will cause a CRT to lose its tax-exempt status for the entire tax year and be taxed as a complex trust. The effect of UBTI on a CRT can range from benign to catastrophic. In this article, Los Angeles attorney David Wheeler Newman reviews several recent letter rulings, all designed to avoid this potential investment trap.  MORE »

For the last five years or so, Gift-PL (the email listserv operated by the National Committee on Planned Giving) has periodically included a discussion thread asking if anyone knew when the latest edition of Debra Ashton's book, The Complete Guide to Planned Giving, would be released. The anticipation and speculation was intense. Well, it's here and Debra has allowed us to give you a peak behind the cover.  MORE »