Two Republican senators and a broad bipartisan coalition of funders and nonprofits prevented a 600% increase in taxes levied on the endowments of the largest private foundations as part of President Donald Trump’s the tax and spending legislation.
Thanks to their support, when Trump signed the bill into law on July 4, taxes went up on the endowments of the largest universities, but not on the endowments of philanthropic foundations.
“I do have to say that this took some persuasion,” said Sen. Todd Young of Indiana in an interview with The Associated Press. The other champion was Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who did not respond to an interview request.
Together, they advocated to remove the provision which, at the high end, would levy a tax of 10% on the investment earnings of foundations with more than $5 billion in assets, up from the current rate of 1.39%.
The move