Business Organizations Law Commons^™

Unreasonable Accumulation Of Income By Foundations, Joel H. Feld

Cleveland State Law Review

Unreasonable accumulation of income was and still is one of the the common abuses found in some foundations. Prior to 1950 the Internal Revenue Service challenged foundation exemption by stating that unreasonable accumulations of income were evidence that the foundation was not organized for, or carrying out, a charitable purpose. The courts were reluctant to follow this theory, and gave the law a liberal interpretation in favor of the foundations. It was not until 1950 that Congress enacted Section 3814 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939. The law is the same today in the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, …