Harvard lobbies Dems for tax break — while endowment swells to $53.2B

Harvard College and different Ivy League faculties are lobbying prime Democrats like Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to repeal the excise tax on personal endowments.
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Harvard College and different Ivy League faculties are lobbying Democrats to roll again a Trump-era excise tax on personal endowments although these establishments are sitting on tens of billions of dollars in money, in keeping with stories.

Harvard’s president, Lawrence Bacow, personally met with senior Democratic lawmakers, together with Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to foyer in opposition to the 1.4% excise tax, in keeping with The Intercept.

Bacow urged Democrats to repeal the tax even though Harvard’s endowment grew to $53.2 billion final 12 months — the best within the nation — after the varsity reported a 33% return on funding.

Harvard isn’t alone amongst Ivy League faculties whose pupil our bodies are made up primarily of children from among the nation’s wealthiest households.

Different top-flight faculties equivalent to Stanford, the College of Pennsylvania, and Cornell have additionally employed lobbyists to push Congress to put off the tax, which they regard as a measure that was imposed by President Donald Trump as an act of political spite.

Harvard College President Lawrence Bacow not too long ago met with Schumer to debate rolling again the excise tax, in keeping with a report.

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Stanford’s endowment swelled to $41.9 billion, a 40.1% return on its funding.

In 2017, Trump signed into regulation the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was handed by a Republican-controlled Congress.

The regulation imposes an excise tax on funding returns on endowment belongings of $500,000 per full time equal pupil at personal schools. The statute applies to round 100 schools and universities nationwide.

Earlier than Trump signed the tax regulation, donations to school endowments had been shielded from federal and state taxes.

The Publish has reached out to Schumer’s workplace in addition to to Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, and Cornell searching for remark.

Ivy League faculties have employed armies of lobbyists to use stress to Schumer and different prime Dems, in keeping with a report.

AP

Bacow advised David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group again in Might that the excise tax was a Republican concoction geared toward punishing their political enemies.

“The tax was constructed disproportionately to tax establishments in liberal states,” he stated.

Bacow added: “I feel that is unhealthy public coverage. We’re a charitable establishment.”