Assessing Tax Reform's Impact on Private Foundations and Recent Guidance Involving Donor Advised Funds

Private foundations assessing the impact of the tax reform legislation (HR1) signed into law on December 22, 2017 should look beyond the private foundation-specific proposals that were not included and assess the impact of provisions affecting all tax-exempt organizations. For some private foundations, the list of key items may include the new excise tax on organizations with highly compensated employees, segmentation of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI), and changes to employer provisions for qualified transportation fringe benefits. Additionally, Notice 2017-73 should be considered when using donor advised funds as stand-alone charitable giving vehicles or in conjunction with private foundation grantmaking activities.