GOP’s Tax on Foundations Takes Aim at Billionaire Philanthropy

After the House released a draft tax bill last week, Thomas Blaney worked until near-midnight analyzing its impact on his clients, some 700 foundations overseeing billions of dollars in assets designated for charity.

The next morning they all got the bad news in a bulletin from Blaney, the partner-in-charge of philanthropy at accounting firm PKF O’Connor Davies: Republicans were proposing a steep increase in levies on private foundations. His phone didn’t stop ringing for days, as alarmed clients fretted over the fate of their charitable giving.