The Service has ruled privately to grant a 60-day extension to a decedent's estate to correct an error made in dividing a testamentary charitable lead unitrust into two trusts: one to which the decedent's Generation-skipping Transfer Tax exemption would be applied and the other to which it would not. The original computation failed to take into account the charitable deduction allowable with respect to the GST Exempt CLUT.  MORE »

The Service has ruled privately that a sale of buildable and non-buildable parcels owned by a homeowners association will not jeopardize the association's tax-exempt status under IRC 501(c)(4) or be treated as unrelated business income because of the significant time between the acquisition and selling of the assets, no improvement on the assets, or no advertisement of their sales.  MORE »

Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) this week introduced the Personal Philanthropy Account Act of 2007 (H.R. 2000) that would encourage private philanthropy by permitting cash contributions by individuals and matching employer contributions of up to $15,000 per year to a trust account maintained by a bank or other person approved by the Secretary. Account holders would be required to distribute annually at least 5% of the account value exceeding $10,000 to organizations described in section 501(c)(3).  MORE »

The Tax Court has sustained the IRS's determination to proceed with collection by levy against an estate for its unpaid tax liability that was determined in prior Tax Court litigation, finding that the IRS did not abuse its discretion in reaching its determination. In the original litigation, the Court upheld the IRS' denial of an estate tax charitable deduction because a charitable remainder annuity trust, for which the deduction was claimed, failed to make any annuity payments during the life of the income recipients, and because the trust's corpus was improperly invaded to pay estate taxes.  MORE »

Individual members of the Charitable Planning and Organizations Group of the American Bar Association, Section of Real Property, Probate and Trust Law, under task force leader Professor Christopher R. Hoyt have responded to IRS Notice 2007-21 in which Treasury and IRS invited public comments regarding a study being conducted on the organization and operation of donor advised funds and supporting organizations as required by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.  MORE »

The Council on Foundations has responded to IRS Notice 2007-21 in which Treasury and IRS invited public comments regarding a study being conducted on the organization and operation of donor advised funds and supporting organizations as required by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.  MORE »

For purposes of determining the present value of an annuity, an interest for life or a term of years, or a remainder or a reversionary interest, Revenue Ruling 2007-29 indicates the charitable federal midterm rate under section 7520 for May 2007 is 5.6%; unchanged from the April rate of 5.6% and down 0.2% from the March rate of 5.8%.  MORE »

The Service has ruled privately that a private foundation's transfer of assets to three other foundations will not subject the transferor to termination tax, be an act of self-dealing, or be taxable expenditures under section 4945(d).  MORE »

The Service has ruled privately that a charitable trust that is classified as a private foundation's receipt of a limited partnership interest from a corporation and royalties therefrom will not result in unrelated business taxable income to the trust, will not be excess business holdings or constitute and act of self-dealing, and will not jeopardize the trust's tax-exempt status.  MORE »

The Service has ruled privately that the tax-exempt status of a public scientific research organization will not be adversely affected when it expands its tax-exempt purposes.  MORE »

Thomas Riley of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, commenting on recent guidance, has recommended that supporting organizations and donor-advised funds have governing boards with a majority of members who are independent of substantial contributors to prevent the donor from exercising control.  MORE »

The Service has ruled in favor of a taxpayer that a complex trust taxable under section 661 whose trustees make discretionary distributions to charitable organizations will not be treated as a section 4947(a)(2) split-interest trust. Accordingly, the trust will not be subject to the private foundation excise tax rules which include prohibitions against self-dealing under section 4941.  MORE »

The Tax Court has denied or reduced a portion of a married couple's deductions for charitable donations and unreimbursed employee business expenses on the basis the couple failed to sufficiently substantiation their claimed deductions.  MORE »

In his opening statement at a March 28, 2007 Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee hearing, panel ranking minority member Wayne Allard, R-Colo., expressed concern about "increasingly hostile IRS actions towards conservation easements"; he said the IRS should not punish most taxpayers because of a few abuses.  MORE »

In this article from Leimberg Information Services, distinguished estate planner and author Byrle M. Abbin points out the recent change in Code Section 664(c) from an income taxable status to an excise tax on UBTI can have an economic result ranging from "disastrous" to "no consequence." What makes the difference, Byrle tells us, is controlled by the nature of the investment and portion that is UBI. Byrle monetizes the impact of the new tax under a range of scenarios, and provides a definition of the excise tax base. If you work with CRTs, this is a MUST read analysis!  MORE »

The Service has ruled privately that income received from a for-profit trade show operator by a tax-exempt trade group is not unrelated business income because the activities are substantially related.  MORE »