Tax Legislation
As a major employer, leading university and one of the nation's largest charitable
entities, tax policy has a significant impact on Harvard University. Tax issues
of concern tend to be focused around four distinct clusters - tax-exempt status,
charitable giving, educational tax incentives and employer-provided benefits.
Tax-exempt status is the crucial tax policy underlying independent higher education.
It predates the formation of most of the nation's colleges, universities and
even the nation's tax code. Charitable giving is a major source of revenue for
the university - it is vitally important in the immediate sense as well as over
the long term through the university's endowment. The tax code also provides
incentives for families to invest in education and to make the expenses associated
with that investment more affordable through tax initiatives such as the HOPE
and Lifetime Learning credits, and the student loan interest deduction. Finally,
tax policy shapes the benefits the university can offer its employees.
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