Month: October 2017

Charitable giving in the U.S. rose 2.7% last year, reaching an all-time record of $390.05 billion. That’s also a record in inflation-adjusted dollars, reports the Giving USA Foundation in its annual report on philanthropy. Individuals, foundations, and corporations contributed to the robust growth in philanthropy, while bequests were projected to have declined by 9.0%. Some…

Two law professors at Washington State University have warned that the IRS has turned to data mining of social media in their enforcement efforts [Houser and Sanders, “The Use of Big Data Analytics by the IRS: Efficient Solutions or the End of Privacy as We Know It?”, 19 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 817…

There are an estimated 94 million mutual fund investors in the U.S., reports the Investment Company Institute in its 2017 Investment Company Fact Book. Those investors represent 54.9 million households, or roughly 43.6% of all U.S. households. That level of mutual fund ownership has held steady during this century. 43.6% of U.S. households own mutual funds…

Under current law, when an heir inherits a Roth IRA or an IRA from someone who has not yet begun receiving minimum distributions, he or she must make a choice. The money must be distributed either within five years or over the heir’s lifetime. For lifelong distributions, the heir will need to withdraw a minimum…