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Full-Text Articles in Law
Stategraft, Bernadette Atuahene, Timothy Hodge
Stategraft, Bernadette Atuahene, Timothy Hodge
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Although sometimes difficult to detect, governmental power abuses can have detrimental impacts. Property tax assessments provide an effective lens to examine this phenomenon because, given the complexity of calculating property tax assessments, it is difficult for citizens to know when local government has exceeded its legitimate taxing authority and crossed into the realm of illegal extraction. Michigan is an ideal case study because it protects property owners by making assessment-related power abuses more visible through a unique state constitutional provision: property tax assessments cannot exceed 50 percent of a property’s market value. Abuses have persisted nevertheless. Between 2011 and 2015, …
The 21st Century Fight Over Who Sets The Terms Of The Charity Property Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody
The 21st Century Fight Over Who Sets The Terms Of The Charity Property Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody
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Turning from the substantive issue of defining charity, this article considers the “who” question by examining the roles of the courts, legislatures, municipalities, and charities in determining exemption and payments in lieu of taxes. The three covered topics – constitutional power, statutory interpretation, and the “intermediate sanctions” of user fees and PILOTs – braid together to form the procedural framework for the financial relationship between nonprofit property owners and the taxing jurisdictions that host them. Change the parameters of one, and you change the others. Staying off the rolls or minimizing the tax bite often results from compromise – whether …
How Public Is Private Philanthropy? Separating Reality From Myth (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2d Ed. 2012) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody
How Public Is Private Philanthropy? Separating Reality From Myth (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2d Ed. 2012) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody
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No abstract provided.
All Charities Are Property-Tax Exempt, But Some Charities Are More Exempt Than Others, Evelyn Brody
All Charities Are Property-Tax Exempt, But Some Charities Are More Exempt Than Others, Evelyn Brody
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Attention from the media notwithstanding, the nonprofit sector continues to achieve remarkable success in state supreme courts and statehouses in defending property-tax exemptions. But budget pressures remain. While the intermediate use of “payments in lieu of taxes” has not yet become a systematic compromise solution, PILOTs are attracting growing interest from local taxing jurisdictions. This Article highlights three issues— who decides the parameters of exemption, legislatures or courts; what are the specific factors and vulnerable subsectors; and how exemption is granted or withheld in practice—and concludes with several PILOT case studies. The Appendix sets forth a fifty-one-jurisdiction review of state …
Respecting Foundation And Charity Autonomy: How Public Is Private Philanthropy? (Symposium) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody
Respecting Foundation And Charity Autonomy: How Public Is Private Philanthropy? (Symposium) (With J. Tyler), Evelyn Brody
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Recent years have seen a disturbing increase in legal proposals by the public and government officials to interfere with the governance, missions, strategies, and decision-making of foundations and other charities. Underlying much of these debates is the premise – stated or merely presumed – that foundation and charity assets are “public money” and that such entities therefore are subject to various public mandates or standards about their structure, operations, and policies. The authors’ experiences and research reveal three “myths” that, singly or collectively, underlie claims that charitable assets are public money. The first myth conceives of charities as shadow governments …
A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance?, Evelyn Brody
A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance?, Evelyn Brody
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This piece, included in the University of Hawaii Law Review's symposium issue on the Bishop Estate, explores the relationship between the new intermediate sanctions law and the IRS's power to revoke tax exemption under § 501(c)(3). Inspired by the storied setting, I indulge in a fantasy: This article pretends that the IRS revoked the Estate's exemption, and takes the form of the Tax Court declaratory judgment opinion. I reluctantly 'rule' that exemption was not appropriate, because State enforcement action against the trustees was proceeding. (However, this forum allows me to hedge my argument by producing two concurring and one dissenting …
My First Grade Teacher, Jeffrey G. Sherman
My First Grade Teacher, Jeffrey G. Sherman
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No abstract provided.
A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance? (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
A Taxing Time For The Bishop Estate: What Is The I.R.S. Role In Charity Governance? (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
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No abstract provided.
Charities In Tax Reform: Threats To Subsidies Overt And Covert, Evelyn Brody
Charities In Tax Reform: Threats To Subsidies Overt And Covert, Evelyn Brody
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Fundamental tax reform would do far more damage to charities than the obvious repeal of the deduction for charitable contributions. Over the decades, charities have quietly garnered billions of dollars worth of indirect benefits. For example, the largest tax expenditure - the exclusion from workers' income of employer-provided health insurance - has fattened nonprofit hospitals, and the new tuition tax credits promise to spur tuition inflation. Tax reform presents an opportunity to eliminate tax subsidies and enact any desired direct expenditures for specific public goods and activities. However, converting tax expenditures to direct outlays would likely take the form of …
Hocking The Halo: Implications Of The Charities' Winning Briefs In Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc., Evelyn Brody
Hocking The Halo: Implications Of The Charities' Winning Briefs In Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc., Evelyn Brody
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In Camps Newfound/Owatonna, the petitioner charity – with important assistance from friends-of-the-court charities – persuaded the Supreme Court to overturn a Maine statute that granted property tax exemption only to those charities primarily serving state residents. Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc. v. Town of Harrison, 117 S. Ct. 1590 (1997). Given this statute's facial discrimination, why was victory a 5-4 squeaker? The charities naturally reasoned that coming within the Commerce Clause requires proving that charities engage in commerce (particularly interstate commerce). In their focus on the financial impact of the discriminatory statute, however, the charities never offered a positive construct of property-tax …
Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
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No abstract provided.
Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody
Of Sovereignty And Subsidy: Conceptualizing The Charity Tax Exemption, Evelyn Brody
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This piece explores the broad financial relationship between the public and the charitable sectors. Tax exemption operates as a peculiar subsidy - offering the greatest benefits to charities carrying on the most profitable activities and owning the most valuable property. Perhaps, then, the property tax and income tax exemption of charities can be explained by a 'sovereign' view of the charitable sector. Resembling the federal tax treatment of state and local governments, exemption for charities respects the independence of the nonprofit sector, and minimizes the involvement of charities in the political process. Unfortunately, the long history of Anglo American philanthropy …
All You Really Need To Know About Subchapter J You Learned From This Article, Jeffrey G. Sherman
All You Really Need To Know About Subchapter J You Learned From This Article, Jeffrey G. Sherman
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No abstract provided.
Charitable Endowments And The Democratization Of Dynasty, Evelyn Brody
Charitable Endowments And The Democratization Of Dynasty, Evelyn Brody
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Charitable endowments and other passive investments exceed $425 billion. Why do many donors require that the principal of their contribution must be held in perpetuity, and that only the income may be used for charitable purposes? Why do most charity managers voluntarily accumulate operating surpluses, and reinvest a portion of real endowment income? This Article suggests that rather than looking at how charities use their endowment income, we should focus on what happens to the endowment principal. It appears that the taste for perpetual charitable endowments persists as the happy co-incidence of donors' desire for immortality for themselves and their …
Hocking The Halo: Implications Of The Charities' Winning Briefs In Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc. (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
Hocking The Halo: Implications Of The Charities' Winning Briefs In Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc. (Symposium), Evelyn Brody
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No abstract provided.
Hairsplitting Under I.R.C. Section 2035(D): The Cause And The Cure, Jeffrey G. Sherman
Hairsplitting Under I.R.C. Section 2035(D): The Cause And The Cure, Jeffrey G. Sherman
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No abstract provided.
Paying Back Your Country Through Income-Contingent Student Loans, Evelyn Brody
Paying Back Your Country Through Income-Contingent Student Loans, Evelyn Brody
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This article uses the case of paying for a college education to study broad issues of equity, both between families and between generations. As a normative matter, I argue that we should subsidize the education of those who are disadvantaged, but that is because a college education generally 'pays off,' society as a whole should not subsidize most students. Rather, the government can serve the valuable function of simply ensuring that students have access to sufficient loans to finance their education. Congress recently enacted President Clinton's proposal to convert the federal role from a guarantor of student loans to a …
Individual Retirement Accounts: Reflections On Some Unanswered Questions, Jeffrey G. Sherman
Individual Retirement Accounts: Reflections On Some Unanswered Questions, Jeffrey G. Sherman
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No abstract provided.