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E-Newsletter -- February, 2005
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In This Issue:
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More Senate Action Affecting Charities |
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Margaret Sumption Signs Book Deal |
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Nonprofit Sector Panel Releases Interim Report on Nonprofit Regulation |
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Please Share With a Colleague! |
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Featured Links:
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More Senate Action Affecting Charities
In last month's e-newsletter, we reported on the Senate Finance Committee's work toward stricter regulation of charities ("Senate Finance Committee and Nonprofit Sector Regulation"). Since then, two events have happened on Capitol Hill.
First, S. 6, the CARE Act, has been reintroduced in the US Senate. This legislation has been debated and passed in various forms since 2001, but a final version has never been able to make it to final passage by both the House and Senate at the same time.
The 2005 incarnation of CARE is a large bill that includes welfare reform provisions and family tax relief. It also omits most of the "charitable choice" and faith-based and community organizations language that caused controversy a few years ago.
Independent Sector's web site has a good summary of the bill's key provisions.
Second, the Senate's Joint Committee on Taxation has issued a report on "closing the tax gap" between what is voluntarily paid on time and what is actually owed by US taxpayers. Among the report's recommendations for finding $92 billion in additional tax revenues, it includes about 200 pages of recommendations affecting US nonprofits. These recommendations are similar to those of the Senate Finance Committee and "strengthen the case for reform," according to Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley.
It's way too soon to tell whether any or all of this legislation will pass Congress this year, but it's increasingly important to pay attention for three reasons: 1) these ideas have been bounced around for a few years already; 2) more controversial provisions have been stripped from the new legislation; and 3) there is a certain "scandal reaction" reform case being made by legislators.
Margaret Sumption Signs Book Deal
Margaret Sumption has agreed to provide material for a chapter in an upcoming book titled "The Masters of Success,". Other contributors include Ken Blanchard ("The One-Minute Manager") and Jack Canfield ("Chicken Soup for the Soul"). The book is scheduled for release in late summer or early fall.
Nonprofit Sector Panel Releases Interim Report on Nonprofit Regulation
Independent Sector's "Panel on the Nonprofit Sector" has released a 72-page interim report addressing proposed regulation of the nonprofit sector.
An article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy says, "The breadth of the nonprofit panel's work drew praise from Sen. Charles R. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the Finance Committee, but he said the panel's proposals must be accompanied by "serious reforms" in the charitable area.
Senator Grassley said he intends to hold a hearing on nonprofit abuses in the spring, and then introduce broad legislation that would set new rules to clean up problems in the nonprofit world while adding tax incentives to stimulate charitable giving."
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