The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) is reporting: “Charities to Face Senate Panel’s Tax Scrutiny.” According to the report:
Charities and other tax-exempt groups will face fresh scrutiny Tuesday when the Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on reports of major abuses. The committee plans to investigate issues ranging from improper use of charities for personal gain to tax-exempt organizations’ helping to facilitate tax shelters for wealthy investors and businesses. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson recently said “abuses” in this sector are “of increasing concern to the IRS.”
The article quotes staffers as saying that the hearing, which is called “Charity Oversight and Reform: Keeping Bad Things from Happening to Good Charities,” will include two confidential witnesses testifying behind a screen, their voices scrambled electronically to protect their identities. One will talk about “insiders fleecing a charity,” while the other will focus on “problems in the fund-raising arena.”