Tax, Legal & Compliance
December 8, 2015 at 10:18 am
When steel magnate Andrew Carnegie tried to get Pennsylvania towns to build public libraries in the 1890s by offering them matching funds, 20 of the 46 local governments he approached turned him down. When John D. Rockefeller Sr. asked Congress to grant a federal charter for his proposed Rockefeller Foundation in 1910, then Attorney General…
December 1, 2015 at 9:48 am
The Texas health and human services commissioner said the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Dallas is ignoring a directive to relocate Syrians somewhere other than Texas. The state wanted assurances Monday from the agency that it will not accept Syrian refugees and threatened legal action if Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders are defied. The IRC,…
November 24, 2015 at 10:08 am
Three Utah nonprofits are challenging a state law that forces organizations to report donors who give more than $750 to influence campaigns or voters. In a lawsuit filed in federal court this week, the groups said the law unconstitutionally forces them to forgo their free speech rights to speak on political issues, or risk losing…
November 24, 2015 at 9:55 am
A new voluntary gift-substantiation regime proposed by the IRS is being opposed by the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN), as well as a number of individual state associations of nonprofits. The system would provide an alternative to the “contemporaneous written acknowledgements” now in use by providing 501(c)(3) nonprofits with the option to report gifts more…
November 20, 2015 at 10:24 am
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has closed down the Veterans Support Organization (VSO) as a settlement from legal action. According to a news release from Paxton's office, VSO collected more than $2.5 million in Texas between 2010 and 2012. But an investigation found 70 percent of the money went to VSO's Florida headquarters and to…
November 19, 2015 at 9:27 am
When you get a call asking for money in the name of a charity, Georgia law requires them to tell you whether they're getting paid with some of your donation. But there's a loophole to that law, one the FOX 5 I-Team discovered a local police charity knows all too well. The DeKalb Fraternal Order…
November 17, 2015 at 10:14 am
The Clinton Foundation filed its 2014 tax return, and amended its filings for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In a highly structured statement, foundation president Donna Shalala explained that this was all voluntary. Besides, she noted, it all came about because of an error in 2010 to 2013 filings. The updated returns can be found…
November 16, 2015 at 10:37 am
In September, a judge ruled that music licensor Warner-Chappell doesn't own the copyright to "Happy Birthday." The question now seems to have become: who does? A charity called the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) has stepped forward now to say that if Warner loses the copyright, it should become the rightful owner. Earlier this week,…
November 13, 2015 at 8:33 am
Tax policy was a central focus of the recent Republican debates, as candidates called for tax reform and defended the tax plans they’ve proposed over the past few months. However, one of the most surprising moments of the debate came from a candidate who has not yet released a comprehensive tax plan: Dr. Ben Carson.…
November 11, 2015 at 9:04 am
Ellis Wamsley IV told a North Texas company that its $2 million investment would be used for economic development projects throughout the U.S. Wamsley’s nonprofit FAIM Economic Development Corp. in Dallas had promised on its website to “economically emancipate, educate and empower the community” with financial literacy education. Instead, Wamsley and his chief operating officer,…
