Senator Grassley Continues to Wonder How Flying on the Team Plane, Or Hoarding 35 Billion Dollars in Endowments, Serves the Public Good.
'The senior Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee plans to expand an investigation into the tax-exempt status of college sports, reopening a debate about whether donors should receive a tax deduction for contributing to athletics departments.
In an interview on Tuesday, an aide to Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said the senator plans to question the Internal Revenue Service about the tax status of booster clubs and athletics programs and "what gives the IRS comfort that they have met the requirements of being a charity."
The fresh concerns came in response to a Chronicle article suggesting that contributions to sports programs are eating up an ever-larger share of donations to colleges, and that some athletics programs entice donors with perquisites like free seats on charter flights ...
"When I hear stories about top donors to college athletic programs getting a free seat on the team plane," Mr. Grassley said in a written statement, "I wonder what the public gets out of that. We need to make sure that taxpayer subsidies for college athletic-program donations benefit the public at large."
... Today the Finance Committee will turn its attention to another concern it has on college campuses: whether university endowments deserve tax breaks. Mr. Grassley has his reservations on that matter, too.
"Since tax breaks for charitable donations are supposed to contribute to the public good," he said, "it's fair to ask whether the tax breaks that lead to big university endowments are serving the public."'
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