The left will light their hair on fire over this, but so what?
Politico reports:
Republicans eye major expansion of college endowment taxHouse Republicans are considering a major expansion of taxes on college and university endowments, with some paying exponentially larger tax rates based on a sliding scale of wealth, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of the GOP’s tax package, which is being hammered out privately.Endowments valued at $750,000 or less per student would be taxed at the current 1.4 percent rate on their investment income, according to two of those people. Endowments valued between $750,000 to $1million per student would be taxed at a 10 percent rate and those greater than $1 million per student would be taxed at a 20 percent rate.The Ways and Means Committee’s tax bill is not yet finalized and details could still change, the people cautioned. The existence of a tiered proposal, but not the exact brackets, was first reported by Bloomberg.The slew of endowment taxes comes as Republicans are struggling to find revenue to fund tax cuts and other elements of a megabill carrying President Donald Trump’s policy priorities.It also dovetails with Trump’s effort to bend some of the nation’s largest and most prestigious universities to his will. Trump has demanded that those schools eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and accused the institutions of permitting harassment of Jewish students on their campuses.Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), has previously suggested that schools could lose their tax-exempt status for failing to “ensure a safe learning environment — including protecting Jewish students from harassment and violence.”Under Trump’s 2017 tax bill, only universities with more than 500 students and endowment assets surpassing $500,000 per student face the current 1.4 percent tax. Ways and Means Republicans have considered both bumping up that tax rate significantly and applying it to a broader mix of U.S. colleges.
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