Tax-exempt Organizations Research Articles

US Zionist Organizations: Their Tax-Exempt Status Challenged

In October 1983, ten Palestinians, one Israeli and five American citizens brought suit in the US Federal Court in Washington, D.C. calling on the Secretary of the US Department of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to revoke the tax-exempt status of six Zionist organizations based in the United States. The organizations are the World Zionist Organization American Section, Inc., also known as the Jewish Agency; the Jewish Agency American Section; the United Israel Appeal; the United Jewish Appeal; the Jewish National Fund; and Americans for a Safe Israel. If the plaintiffs succeed, their action could stop the flow of the millions of dollars that are transferred yearly to the state of Israel by American Zionists. The US government is the defendant in the suit, not the Zionist organizations, because it was the decision of the US Department of the Treasury to grant tax-exempt status to the organizations. Being granted tax-exempt status by the Treasury Department pursuant to Title 26 Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Code can be the financial life line for many organizations. It permits individuals who donate money to a tax-exempt organization to deduct the same amount

Acid Precipitation: Scientific Progress and Public Awareness

Ellis B. Cowling was educated at the State University of New York College of Forestry at Syracuse University. He completed Ph.D. degrees in plant pathology and biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin and in physiological botany at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He is presently Assistant Director, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Associate Dean for Research, School of Forest Resources at North Carolina University. Dr. Cowling is also Chairman of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program. In 1981 he was appointed United States Co-chairman of a CanadianUnited States joint Scientific Committee on Acid Precipitation. This committee was established by the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Cowling is President of The Acid Rain Foundation, Inc., a public, tax-exempt organization aimed toward public awareness, education, and research. [Editor's note: Some portions of this article have been published previously.] In recent decades, acid rain has become a dominant feature of people-induced change in the chemical climate of the Earth. Wherever fossil fuels are burned, metal ores are smelted, and materials are processed on a large scale, various gaseous, aerosol, and particulate waste products are released into the atmosphere. These substances and their reaction products are dispersed by meteorological processes and deposited on vegetation, soils, and surface waters, often at great distances from the source of emissions. Concern has arisen in many countries about effects on forests, fish, crops, water quality, materials, and human health. The result is a growing concern among scientists and the public about international exchange of air pollutants, wet and dry deposition of strong acids and other acidifying substances, as well as the associated deposition and mobilization of toxic metals and the leaching of nutrient substances.

The Crisis of the Non-Profit Sector

The non-profit sector of U.S. cultural and social life is facing a crisis of major proportions, as we enter the inflation-ridden 1980s and a reactionary political climate. Blacks are especially affected by the crisis in the non-profit movement. The non-profit sector is overwhelmingly composed of social welfare, educational and humanitarian organizations. The NAACP and other civil rights organizations are non-profit; the ACLU, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL and related human rights groups are non-profit, as are countless community organizations such as The National Black United Fund that focus on matters such as rent control, programs for the elderly, welfare rights, educational and tutorial programs, food and nutrition programs and legal rights. At the beginning of the 20th century, the non-profit, tax-exempt designation was intended primarily to protect the interests of enormous capitalist enterprises such as those developed by the Carnegie, Mellon, Rockefeller, Morgan and Vanderbilt families, against new tax laws and restrictions. Corporations were permitted to transfer their surplus capital into non-profit, tax exempt corporations (often bearing the same name). Thus transferred these monies could not be taxed, nor could they be used to generate profit. Instead, a portion of the endowment had to be used for philanthropic and humane activities. Finally, non-profit tax exempt organizations were banned from specific action of effect passage of particular legislation, or election of specific candidates. In exchange for this behavior, non-profit corporations were permitted lower postage rates, freedom from state and federal taxes. Donors to said organizations would receive tax exemption for their gifts. Many mainstream 20th century organizations are non-profit, such as the Boy Scouts, YMCA, United Way and charity groups. Because of their intimate linkage with the resources and values of monopoly capitalism in the U.S., their funds are not in significant peril. However, in addition to such groups, there has emerged in the last 30 years a network of non-profit activity that is devoted to various causes often imperiled by the inequalities and improprieties structured into capitalist society: minorities, women, consumers, the elderly, tenants, artists, conservation, birth control, abortion and similar groups and issues. There are two halves to the non-profit sector, one half representing and prospering from the status quo, and the other half, of a corrective nature, addressing itself to rights and issues that are too controversial and too unpopular for consideration by legislators, executives and political parties of an establishment characterized by white supremacy and male chauvinism. What has emerged is a kind of people’s democracy in which education and advoSource: The Black Scholar, Vol. 13, No. 1, The Black Elderly (January/February 1982).

Tax Policy and Health Maintenance Organizations: The Case for a Section 501(c)(3) Tax Exemption

The Internal Revenue Service typically grants health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and I.R.C. section 501(c)(4) exemption from federal income taxation. If these prepayment group medical providers were classified as section 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations, however, they would receive many additional advantages including increases in private funding and decreases in material and operating costs. This Note contends that most nonprofit HMOs--whether or not they have qualified under the federal HMO Act--should be granted 501(c)(3) status because they conform with all the specific requisites and general theoretical justifications of a "charitable purpose" tax exempt organization. Specifically, HMOs serve a tax exempt purpose by providing health care, by benefiting the community as a whole, and relieving the government of some of its public health burdens. HMOs comply with further requirements of section 501(c)(3) and its accompanying I.R.C. regulations by serving a broad membership while avoiding insider control or commercial dealings. Therefore, if an organization is a nonprofit prepayment group practice health provider that serves a broad community and provides health benefits without insider control, it should receive a 501(c)(3) tax exemption.

The Artists Technical Research Institute

The Artists Technical Research Institute (ATRI), a nonprofit tax-exempt organization was established to engage in scientific laboratory research and educational activities in the field of the materials and techniques of creative painting and sculpture. Its purpose is to provide the artist with scientifically reliable knowledge of the materials he uses, and their proper methods of application, and to establish standards to replace the vague empirical rules that artists have followed in the past. Its approach is purely technical; although it serves the requirements of creative art, it does not involve aesthetic values. Announcement of its program in 1961 elicited a great many enthusiastic responses from the art world here and abroad.Status of the field. Although everyone agrees that a rational knowledge of his materials is of basic importance to the painter, this area has been curiously neglected.

Case Study: Ocean Beach Animal Shelter

Ocean Beach Animal Shelter is a nonprofit decision case featuring a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization experiencing serious board and CEO leadership problems that are endangering the organization’s mission achievement effectiveness and long-term viability. The main protagonists in the case are the Executive Director Corella McGill, recently appointed Board President Kitty Sitter, community volunteer Mary Ann White and her husband Max White.

To the American Otolaryngologist

THE Constitution and By-Laws of your American Council of Otolaryngology have been completed by the Organizing Committee. The Council promises to be your finest servant as you strive toward ever-improving service to your patient. It will be the certain guarantee that your special field in medicine will grow in service and standing in the medical community. The Council will be incorporated under the laws of a specific state as a tax-exempt organization providing coordination and a leadership mechanism for national and state groups in the specialty of otolaryngology in order to promote better patient care in this field. <h3>Purposes of the American Council of Otolaryngology</h3> To furnish an instrument for discussion between the professional organizations in otolaryngology at the national, state, and community level. To furnish a forum which will focus attention on the national health problems in our field. To be sensitive to the national manpower

Preventing the Operation of Untaxed Business by Tax-Exempt Organizations

Preventing the Operation of Untaxed Business by Tax-Exempt Organizations

Foundations: Patman Maintains Pressure for Tighter Regulation of Tax-Exempt Organizations

Foundations: Patman Maintains Pressure for Tighter Regulation of Tax-Exempt Organizations