Lead Stories

A federal District Court in Texas has upheld an IRS denial of a $1.257 million charitable contribution deduction claim for a gift to a donor advised fund because, it said, the contemporary written acknowledgment of the gift did not say the money was held under the “exclusive legal control” of the recipient charity.  The Court said that the Contemporaneous Written Acknowledgment could not be combined with the gift agreement, which provided for ultimate authority and control of the assets, to meet the requirements of the Treasury regulations.

Should the federal criminal sentencing guideline be used to add an extra eight to ten months in prison for the executive director of a charity who embezzled about $150,000 from the agency when the guideline says a two-level enhancement should be applied when the offence involves “a misrepresentation that the defendant was acting on behalf of a charitable” organization?

A federal District Court in Illinois said it should be applied.  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has said not so fast.

The trial court that recently ruled that the New York Attorney General did not have grounds to force a judicial dissolution of the National Rifle Association (See Nonprofit Issues^®, Vol. XXXII, No. 2) has denied counterclaims by the NRA seeking to dismiss the entire case as unconstitutionally retaliatory or selective.  The Court has ruled that the AG may continue to pursue a variety of other claims against the organization and individual defendants.

The Attorney General for the District of Columbia may proceed with a suit to dissolve a nonprofit fiscal sponsor that it claims provided more than $4 million in grants, constituting more than 99% of its total grantmaking, to a related for-profit corporation, the District’s Court of Appeals has ruled.

A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has dismissed a hostile work environment claim brought against a behavioral health facility by a black woman aide because “an objectively reasonable caretaker would not have been detrimentally affected” by her patient’s regular race-based harassment.

A trial court in New York has dismissed a complaint brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association for its failure to oversee top executives and prevent the loss of millions of dollars improperly spent by its leaders.  But the Court has allowed the AG to continue to prosecute various claims against the individual defendants for breach of fiduciary duty and other offenses.