Is Obama’s Estate Tax Plan The Nail In The Nonprofit Coffin?

We folks who deal with high net worth clients have wondered for years what will happen with estate taxes when the current plan sunsets in 2011. Let me make a guarantee here (which is something I don’t often do). I guarantee that estate taxes will be addressed before 2010 which is when they are set [...]

Anderson Cooper 360 Story on Obama Plan to Cut Charitable and Mortgage Tax Deductions

Charity Navigator CEO, Ken Berger talked with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about Obama’s plan to cut the charitable tax deduction.

Nonprofit Recession Survival Guide to Getting Donations

First the markets, then Madoff, now the Obama administration is proposing reductions in the charitable tax deduction for your biggest donors. What else could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the snow day and nobody came to work. One thing is for certain; raising funds in the current environment is much more [...]

Does Obama Owe the Nonprofit Community an Explanation?

I’ve been discussing Obama’s proposed tax changes reducing mortgage interest and charitable contribution deductions with just about every intelligent person I know who has been following this story. Not one person I talked to can make a rational arguement as to how this directly benefits anybody. I consider myself to be a pretty open minded [...]

Is Obama’s Plan to Cut Charitable and Mortgage Deductions Really Stimulus?

The news is out. President Obama announced plans to cut the deductions for charitable contributions and mortgage interest incurred for Americans who earn more than $250,000 per year and raise the top tax bracket from 35% to 39.6%. I have some very sharp opinions about this proposal. For the sake of full disclosure, I voted [...]

Obama Inauguration Speech Transcript

My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the [...]

Barack Obama Inauguration: I Had a Dream (and it came true)

My first memory is when I was 5 years old. I went to the beach with my father, and for a long time we ran back and forth trying to get a kite to fly. After a while, my father said, “Son, I don’t think there’s enough wind to fly the kite today.” Undeterred as [...]

What’s Obama’s Estate Tax Move and How Should You Plan?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that President-elect Obama plans to block any attempts from allowing the estate tax from disappearing in 2010. The estate tax credit amounts were raised to $3.5 million per person in 2009, meaning that individuals can pass that amount free of federal estate taxes, with amounts over that subject to [...]