Federal Tax-Exemption and Charity

Session Submission Type: Complete Session

Abstract

The federal tax treatment of charitable organizations has emerged as a flashpoint for legal and ideological conflict. From the IRS to the Oval Office, and from courtrooms to congressional hearings, tax-exempt organizations are at the center of debates over institutional power, political influence, and the role of private wealth in public life. This panel brings together three papers that examine how recent political developments are reshaping the law of tax exemption and charitable giving, and, in turn, how these areas of tax law reflect and reinforce contested visions of public values, institutional pluralism, and federal authority.

The first paper explores President Trump’s unprecedented efforts to revoke Harvard’s § 501(c)(3) status, and the legal and constitutional tensions that arise when the executive branch uses tax law to punish or reshape civil society institutions. The second paper investigates the rise of § 4968, and other proposals for taxing university endowments, analyzing how political narratives about wealth, inequality, and elite institutions have influenced the design and justification of new fiscal policies targeting the nonprofit sector. The third paper addresses the charitable deduction under § 170, exploring whether its current construction, which restricts its availability to high net-worth individuals who itemize, undermines pluralist ideals by effectively narrowing the range of subsidized philanthropic preferences and limiting public participation in the nonprofit sphere.

Together, these papers offer a timely and critical examination of how federal tax law is being weaponized, reimagined, and contested anew in response to broader anxieties about wealth, power, and democracy. By analyzing both doctrinal developments and underlying normative frameworks, the panel sheds light on the evolving relationship between tax policy and the structure of the American civic landscape.

Subject Area

• Corporate and Business Taxation

Chair

• Sloan Speck, sloan.speck@colorado.edu

Discussant

• Hillel Nadler, Wayne State University Law School

Individual Presentations

• Revoking Tax-Exemption for Pursuit of DEI - Ellen Aprill, Loyola Law School

• Theories of University Endowment Taxation - Lauren Libby, Yale Law School

• Cultural Pluralism & Charitable Deduction Reform - Skyler Dykes, WilmerHale

• Update of State Taxation of University Endowment Income - Robert McCarthy, rm6082@nyu.edu

Session Organizer

• Lauren Libby, Yale Law School