The New York Sun reports:
House Republicans are plotting a $1.7 billion tax increase aimed at America’s most elite colleges and universities.
The tax increase is buried on page 879 of Congressman Dave Camp’s 979-page tax reform bill. The bill is considered unlikely to become law, but Mr. Camp is chairman of the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and his draft legislation is likely to provide a road map for tax reformers in years ahead.
The tax, as outlined in Section 5206 of the legislation, is called an “excise tax based on investment income of private colleges and universities.” It begins, “there is hereby imposed on each applicable institution for the taxable year an excise tax equal to 1 percent of the net investment income of such institution for the taxable year.”
The draft legislation goes on to make clear that the proposed new tax would apply only to private colleges and universities, not state colleges or universities. So Harvard’s $32 billion endowment would be fair game for the tax collector, but the University of Texas’s $20 billion endowment would remain tax exempt. The proposed tax would also only apply to the richest of the private colleges — those with endowments of at least $100,000 per full time student. That would exempt private colleges such as Georgetown or George Washington University, which are reportedly not as well endowed on a per student basis.
Who couldn't have noticed that
Harvard made the list??? After all, the tenured socialists claim that higher taxes don't effect economic behavior shouldn't mind paying "their fair share":
Nice endowment you’ve got there, the Republicans seem to be saying: It’d be too bad if we have to redistribute it.
You university presidents out there: might want to reconsider having so many people on campus calling for higher taxes and regulations.
