Posted on 12/06/2009 7:25:46 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
December 6, 2009
Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks
By STEPHANIE STROM
The number of organizations that can offer their donors a tax break in the name of charity has grown more than 60 percent in the United States, to 1.1 million, in just a decade.
Experts say nonprofits are skillfully exploiting the tax code’s broad and elastic definition of what constitutes such a charity, making it difficult for the Internal Revenue Service, which must bless them, to say no. The agency approved 99 percent of the applications for public charity status last year, according to a new study by students at Stanford University — or more than one every 10 to 15 minutes.
Take the Woohoo Sistahs, a social club that won approval last year. Its 50 or so members meet regularly over drinks and dinner in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and raise money for cancer research and other causes through walkathons and sales held in retailers’ parking lots.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
Individuals are far more qualified than beaureucrats when it comes to spending their money on people in need. So, depriving the Feds of our hard - eearned money so that we can directly help out who WE determine is needy is a virtue.
I predict tax revenues to states and the feds will continue to decline as the business and economy worsen even more. I also predict we are in a Great Depression or soon will be. Therefore I believe we will see more and more people doing what they have to do in order to survive. More will move into low or no tax states. Businesses, large and small, will also move for economic reasons. The commercial real estate market will plummet even more than it is already. Housing prices will probably begin to decline after having leveled off for a bit. Consumers will buy only necessities and then only sparingly. Big ticket items will remain on shelves and not sell. Inventories will grow and become stagnant. Unless the government takes immediate steps to bolster the dollar, it will continue declining. REality is a big pain in the ass but a recovery can take place next November if republicans win the election in a landslide and take back both houses of Congress.
There will never be enough tax revenue to satisfy the government’s insatiable appetite for spending. The media is their cheerleader.
...personally, I’ve got charity fatigue...we get 3-4 letters a day asking for money...I’ve quit sending them checks...instead, I’m taking food to the local food bank...it’s anonymous and needed.
Sometimes I doubt that?
The contracts that ACORN receives on these projects are for delivering specific activities, all of which are tax-exempt qualified in accordance with federal grant guidelines
This growth of nonprofits, however, I see as another indicator of the enormous concentration of wealth in the hands of folks who really have no clue how to spend their money wisely.
How many more Frank Ghehry designed Ithegreatbazillionaire foundation art galleries to house third rate modern art does this country need? The world long ago ran out of good art to put in these things, and the gazillionaires who build them as graven images to their own egos have no idea how to usefully deploy capital in there interests of greater productivity (many of them never having been in that business before).
It is a legitimate beef. The more taxes dodged through these means the more you and I have to pay.
It started with subprime crisis.
1st talking point: this is only the tiny fraction of financial market. No crisis.
The crisis spread over the entire financial sector
2nd talking point: this is a crisis which can be easily contained. It will be remedied quickly. No chance of recession.
The financial sector are visibly hemorrhaging
3rd talking point: the real economy is fine. This is only the financial problem. Factories are running, and people are working
People start losing jobs. Government spends trillions to plug massive hole in the financial sector.
4th talking point: Don't panic. We are only in a recession. However, green shoot will arrive soon. This is an ordinary recession.
Unemployment level is going up. Some say 'D' word.
5th talking point: This is not a depression. You won't say depression until unemployment hits 10%
unemployment hits 10%
6th talking point: OK, this is a 'Great Recession,' not another Great Depression.
In the future.....
Inflation skyrocket.
7th talking point: See! Prices are rising left and right. I told you this is not another Great Depression.
what this will be about in 2010 as the Dems start to do “deficit reduction” (aka TAX INCREASES - only on the rich of course) - is they will push to end tax deductions for religious organizations.
Nobody or nothing is more detrimental than over-educated uptopia-chaser on state payroll.
Simple, a new tax is needed on non-profit charities.
More government is always the wrong answer to ANY problem.
I agree. A lot of these non profits, however, take up residence here in DC and assist the over-educated uptopia-chaser on state payroll by hiring over-educated uptopia-chaser on much higher nonprofit payrolls.
The capping of Wall Street salaries deprived NYC of way more tax revenue than a few small charities have. I love it when liberals are hoisted on their own petards.
Cut spending big time, then eliminate all tax deductions.
“...depriving the Feds of our hard-earned money so that we can directly help out who WE determine is needy is a virtue.”
Amen, Brother Adams. Amen! :)
(Thwarting taxes is my hobby and delight. Starve the beast!)
I was with you right up until this:
“Reality is a big pain in the ass but a recovery can take place next November if republicans win the election in a landslide and take back both houses of Congress.”
I’m not sure the current crop of RINOs is capable of steering this ship out of the sea of icebergs we currently find ourselves in.
As much as I loved President Bush & Laura, he was a huge spender, too. Not to mention that we have been saddled with a Congress that’s gotten WORSE each and every year since 1994!
It’s going to take some serious candidates to come out of the woodwork to clean up this mess. Who, in their right mind would WANT that job? (And that leaves us a lot of people who may not be in their right minds, LOL!)
If we truly are in another Great Depression, it’s going to take a World War to pull us out of it. Those who do not learn from History are destined to repeat it. And we’re ripe for the pickin’ with our dumbed-down electorate and a full HALF of our population on the dole in one way or another.
"The problem with socialism is eventually they run out of other people's money."
So, So, So true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.