Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘The Tax Man’s Hand Reaches for the Collection Plate’
The new Internal Revenue Code requirement that charitable tax deductions be evidenced by a receipt and/or a bank record is the product of public and congressional skepticism towards the tax-exempt organizations [New York, “The Tax Man’s hand Reaches for the Collection Plate,” January 25, 2007]. High profile cases of charitable and other tax-exempt organizations being used, unwittingly or otherwise, as vehicles for abuse of the tax laws, have created an atmosphere of distrust towards charities and other organizations that have been granted certain privileges under the tax laws. The chickens have come home to roost.
Those who manage the tax-exempt entities, from the small neighborhood house of worship to the national charitable service organizations, must be mindful not only of the new stringencies in the tax laws (which the new Congress can only be expected to ratchet up), but also with an increasingly cynical and angry public from whom the funds are solicited. Those organizations which are forthright, open, and transparent will fare far better with the acid test of public opinion than those organizations which continue to engage in secretive back-room manipulations without credible internal controls.
And accountants or other tax preparers who “decide on a case-by-case basis whether to allow clients to take [undocumented charitable] deductions” should not be surprised if they and their clients lose the “audit roulette” game. Recent tax legislation has raised the bar for tax practitioners, and additional strictures can be expected in the IRS’s regulation of those who advise and counsel taxpayers.
KENNETH RYESKY
Former IRS attorney
East Northport, N.Y.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
