Do Elite Universities Abuse their Tax Subsidies?

A recent op-ed in the New York Times with the provocative title “Stop Universities from Hoarding Money” once again raises the issue of university endowments. It focuses in large part on the extraordinary amounts elite universities either “hoard” or spend on fees to investment advisors and hedge funds in contrast to the much smaller sums spent on “tuition assistance, fellowships and prizes,” those things seen as the university’s true mission. The author, a tax professor, suggests that universities with endowments in excess of $100 million should be required to expend at least eight percent of their endowments each year. This is not a new proposal; similar proposals arise periodically. Of course entities with such large sums (Harvard’s endowment is reported to exceed $32.5 billion) are formidable players in politics so these calls generally go unheeded.

To understand why we all have an interest in these matters one must know a thing or two about federal tax law as it applies to charitable organizations. Universities are classified as “public charities” which status means that they can generally earn and accumulate money exempt from federal income tax. Policy experts sometimes refer to these benefits as a taxpayer “subsidy,” to the university, because exempting the university from tax is the same as taxing it like other entities and then returning to it its tax payments rather than using them for other public benefit. Imagine the potential tax liability of an institution like Harvard if its receipts (tuition, income and gains on investments) were subject to the income tax. That figure would reach at least tens of millions of dollars annually. The idea behind the tax exemption, of course, is that it allows universities to provide more research, knowledge and education—all seen as public goods. And tax-exemption is not the only federal tax subsidy from which universities benefit. Donors’ taxes are reduced when they make contributions to universities through generous tax deductions. Like exempting universities from the income tax, subsidizing donations to those institutions with taxpayer dollars increases the availability of the public goods produced by universities.

By implementing the foregoing tax benefits, Congress apparently assumed that we (the taxpayers) are getting what we pay for. But is that true as respects university endowments? Why does Harvard have $32.5 billion and what is it doing with all that money? Why did Yale pay $480 million to private equity fund managers compared with $170 million for tuition assistance, fellowships and prizes? Should these wealthy elite universities be spending more of their endowments on their core mission? That question has been considered by a couple of scholars. Unfortunately, the results seem to suggest that when it comes to at least some university endowments, we are not, in fact, getting what we pay for.

It seems to be generally accepted that a university should spend no more of its endowment than the endowment generates in income and (perhaps) capital appreciation. Many spend income only and allow capital appreciation to accrue, which will generally allow an endowment to grow much larger over time. These practices are justified on the basis of “intergenerational equity.” Maintaining the endowment’s value over time means that it can continue to support the university’s activities indefinitely. But a 1990 study found that the basis for the intergenerational equity argument had little merit. And the fact remains that elite university endowments are growing at substantial rates.

A more recent study, undertaken in 2010 sought to determine why universities, in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, slashed operating budgets, laid off employees, froze salaries, and delayed expansion projects, among other things, rather than dipping into multibillion dollar endowments. Reasons given by the universities were that pre-crisis spending was unsustainable, the endowments were legally restricted as to use, and that the investments were generally illiquid and difficult to access. This study found each of these reasons to be unpersuasive. The author concluded that the endowments served primarily as status symbols, and that universities would reach for any other source of funding to avoid diminishing their endowments.

There is certainly precedent for requiring tax-exempt organizations to expend a minimum percentage of their assets. Private foundations are different from public charities in that rather than being supported by a wide range of public contributions they might be funded only by one family or even one individual. Because private foundations are not “publicly-supported” federal tax statutes require them to expend at least five percent of their net investment assets on charitable endeavors each year. Failure to comply subjects them to a potentially crippling penalty tax. Under the same principle, universities should be using their tax-subsidized endowments to support their core charitable missions. Those who don’t should be penalized.

Kent D. Schenkel

Should We Abolish the Estate Tax?

Here’s a simple yes or no question: Do you personally favor or oppose completely eliminating the estate tax—that is the tax on property left by people who die?

After you have answered that question consider this. Suppose you receive an unexpected call from a lawyer who tells you that she represents the estate of your great Aunt Leona, who recently died. She goes on to tell you that, in her will, Aunt Leona left you a bequest of $100,000 in cash. Do you think you would you be required to pay federal income taxes on that amount?

When I ask my new tax students this question most assume that federal income taxes would be owed. But most students' assumptions are wrong, because under federal income tax law property received by bequest or inheritance (and even that received by gift) is excluded from the definition of income. So you would get the whole $100,000, free and clear of federal income taxes.

What about federal “death” taxes? Federal law does include what is known as an “estate tax,” which is a tax on the aggregate value of everything a person owned at death. Would that tax reduce the amount you received from Aunt Leona’s estate? No, because that tax is paid by the decedent’s estate after her death. You would receive your bequest in full after the payment of any federal estate tax that was due. But chances are overwhelmingly good that Aunt Leona’s estate would owe no federal estate tax anyway. The tax has for many years applied to only a very small fraction of estates. And that fraction keeps getting smaller.

In keeping with this trend, late last year, Congress passed, and the President signed, a law under which no federal estate tax is owed unless the estate exceeds $5 million in total value, less any substantial gifts made during lifetime. Decedents can also leave an unlimited amount to their surviving spouses without any estate tax becoming due. Those spouses can then generally leave up to $10 million in assets to the next generation without their estates being liable for any federal estate tax.

To put this in perspective, in 2007 there were probably no more than 600,000 total households in the U.S. with a net worth in excess of $10 million. Based on today’s total U.S. population of about 308 million people, this means that far less than 1% of the U.S. population will be exposed to this tax. Although the 2010 law is more generous than most prior laws in exempting wealth from the estate tax, the federal estate tax has for many years affected only 2% or less of estates.

Consider again the question posed at the beginning of this post—do you favor or oppose the complete elimination of the estate tax? In annual polls commissioned by the Tax Foundation and conducted by Harris Interactive in 2006-2007, 66%-68% of people favored completely eliminating the estate tax altogether when that question was posed exactly as stated in the first sentence of this post. Note how this poll question, given by an organization that describes itself as “a nonpartisan tax research group,” was phrased as all-or-nothing: the “complete elimination” of the estate tax.

Consider some more data. In 2010, Michael Norton of Duke University and Dan Ariely of Harvard Business School devised a survey wherein they asked a “nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to ‘build a better America’ by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality.” The results: most of those surveyed vastly underestimated the actual percentage of wealth owned by the top 20% of Americans—those surveyed guessed it was 60% when in reality it’s 85%. The survey takers estimated that the poorest 40% of the population owned about 10% of the country’s total wealth. The real number is three-tenths of 1%. Perhaps even more striking, over 90% of those surveyed (including Republicans) preferred wealth distribution like that of Sweden (35% of wealth owned by the top 20%) over the U.S. when asked which type of wealth distribution they would deem most just.

A common argument in favor of estate tax elimination is that it amounts to a “double-tax.” In other words, income is taxed to the recipient, and then when the recipient dies that income, now in the form of wealth, is taxed again by the estate tax. But there are at least three counterarguments here.

First, the person who “earned” the property (and presumably paid tax on it) is now dead, and the heir (the new owner) paid no tax. The money you received from Aunt Leona’s estate is no longer Aunt Leona’s, it’s now yours, and this is why so many people automatically assume that it is subject to the income tax. In fact, under the tax law’s general definition of income as all “accessions to wealth” it would be taxed if it were not for a specific exclusion written into the Internal Revenue Code for gifts and bequests.

Second, studies have shown that some 56% of estates of over $10 million consist of unrealized capital gains. This means that even the dead person paid no income tax ever on over one-half of what he is passing on. To give this some context let’s assume, for example, that Aunt Leona had left you a painting she bought for $100 that was now worth $100,000. She may have paid tax on the $100 she earned to buy the painting but would never have paid tax on the $99,900 in appreciation.

Finally, other income tax rules provide that the recipient can sell almost any property inherited at the value it was when inherited and pay no tax on the proceeds. In other words, when you sell Aunt Leona’s painting for $100,000, you can pocket the sales price free of tax.

So rules governing taxation at death are complex, but generally pretty favorable to the taxpayer. This brings us back to the question that we started with. Do you favor the complete elimination of the estate tax? Or does the question need context and the answer call for nuance?

Kent Schenkel