Taxing the well-endowed
If the Boston Globe describes the tax to as “how to strangle an economy”, then it must be a good idea. When did the fish-wrapper ever care about that? And why should these schools be “exempt” in the first place?
Archived in: Higher Education, Massachusetts, TaxationMay 11, 2008 at 9:17 am | Trackback
6 comments
Well… There is not enough info to know, but it looks like the proposal is to tax the entire endowment every year. Until there is no endowment left.
This is why my brother-in-law, 80% of whose business is in one state, keeps his inventory stock (half of which does not turn over in twenty years) in another state: both RI and Mass tax the whole inventory, whether it has been taxed before or not.
Even income taxes on bank accounts are not that stupid - the yearly interest is taxed, not the principal.
CT taxes the entire inventory, too, Jack. I agree, also, it looks like the endowments above 1B are taxed every year, most of which isn’t turned or renewed, but held. While I don’t agree even in principal, taxes on the income earned from the endowment (excluding alumni contributions) have some precedent, where taxing the fixed amount seems…well, it seems like Massachusetts. I still don’t understand the historical exemption for these institutions. Harvard is apparently so wealthy, the school could educate the entire freshman class every year without tuition.
How much money are we sending them in higher education welfare each year? For that the tuition goes up, our taxes also and to quote my favorite communist, Bernie Sanders, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
The money’s pink, TAX IT ALL! About time they paid their fair share, actually it’s about time they paid something.
I’m sure that when this idea is adopted, it will end up being some sort of tax that is paid by the private schools (and parents who homeschool) that are not considered ’socially responsible’ that will ‘benefit’ the public school monopoly. Haaahvaad and the other megabuck trustifarian breeding grounds will be exempt from this as they will have the PC Stamp of Approval from the appropriate .gov authority.
I doubt Harvard will be exempt, Bryan. Ideological purity, you know. They’re being asked to practice their preaching by those with more revolutionary goals. They’re eating their own.
I’ve never known the Cultural Left to let ideological purity get in the way of them keeping THEIR money.