Building Nonprofit Advocacy Capacity

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Senate Finance Committee to Hold Roundtable on Nonprofit Issues

The Senate Finance Committee recently announced it will hold a roundtable discussion Thursday, July 22, on issues concerning exempt organizations. The two main purposes of the roundtable are to follow-up on the committee's hearing on charities, and to further review the staff's discussion draft regarding proposed reforms to exempt organizations.

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Senate Finance Committee Staff Proposals for Nonprofits

On June 21 the Senate Finance Committee published a Staff Discussion Draft of Proposals for Reforms in the Tax-Exempt Accounting and Best Practices that is "based on staff investigations and research as well as proposals from practitioners." The document notes that specific proposals are meant to generate comments and additional suggestions "as the Finance Committee continues to consider possible legislation." It focuses on changes for nonprofits, while other legislative proposals focus on deductibility issues and abuses by donors.

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Senate Committee to Hold Hearing on Charities

On June 1 Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (D-MT) announced a hearing on charitable giving problems and best practices. The announcement said the hearing, scheduled for the morning of June 22nd, will address the following issues: åá Governance and best practices of charities; åá Charities accommodating tax shelters; åá Donor gifts of tangible and intangible property; and åá Current problems and issues in the charitable community.

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Report Says IRS Site on 527 Groups Needs Improvement

A May 12 report by the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has complied with a 2002 Congressional mandate to make its website disclosing finances of Section 527 political committees searchable. However, the report said improvements are needed.

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IRS May Investigate Catholic Diocese Political Communications

A charity watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate and possibly revoke the tax-exempt status of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs.

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Public Outcry Forces DeLay to Cancel Fundraiser

A charity associated with Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) has finally decided to pull the plug on its fundraiser that was to take place during the week of the Republican National Convention in New York. The cancellation came after numerous complaints were filed to the IRS and an outpouring of criticism was rehashed in most major U.S. newspapers.

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National Head Start Association Calls for Bureau Chief's Resignation

The National Head Start Association called for the resignation of U.S. Head Start Bureau chief, Windy Hill on April 13 after it unveiled findings from an unreleased Health and Human Services (HHS) review that revealed Hill was engaged in serious mishandling of federal grant money. The allegations were supported by an outside audit of the Head Start program in Texas Hill managed.

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More Complaints Filed Against Congressman DeLay

Democracy 21 joins Common Cause and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in their efforts to get House members to file a complaint to the ethics committee against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).

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New Round of Funding for Compassion Capital Fund

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a new round of competition for $7 million in grants to intermediary organizations to provide technical assistance and sub-awards for capacity building to faith-based and community organizations.

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Effort to Revive CARE Act Fails

Lack of offsets to pay for the costs of new charitable tax deductions and disputes over the rules for a conference committee have appeared to doom an effort by Sens. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) to attach the CARE Act to S. 1637, the Jumpstart Our Business Strength Act (JOBS), which deals with extraterritorial income. On March 23, Santorum sought unanimous consent to move the JOBS bill, citing the support of Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). But Daschle withdrew his support because House Republicans have excluded Democrats from conference negotiations with the House.

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