The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "deductions" ...
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Rich with history: Profiting from preservation
The Post examined the rise in the abuse of "facade easement donations," which provide tax breaks for homeowners who promise to not change the outward appearance of their historic homes. The Post found that preservation laws in most cities already forbade unapproved changes to the exterior of these homes, so the owners were receiving six-figure tax breaks for something they could not change anyway. Furthermore, the Post found that this tax windfall was benefiting the wealthiest homeowners and was being fueled by for-profit promoters who took a cut of the tax breaks. The investigation prompted calls for reform from Congress before the stories were even published.
Tags: charity; facade easement donation; tax break; tax write-off; tax deductions; historic preservation
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Seizing for Dollars
The News-Sentinel examined the state's asset forfeiture program, specifically looking at what items were being taken from people by law enforcement in our country, why the property was taken and what happened to it. The reporters found authorities confiscated $1.1 million and nearly 1,700 vehicles over the past four years. Most of the vehicles were seized from repeat drunk drivers and those driving on a revoked license because of a prior DUI. The reporters looked at how much money the auctions of those vehicles brought into the departments and found that most agencies lost money after they deducted storage, towing and auction expenses from the proceeds.
Tags: forfeiture laws; Knoxville Police Department; vehicles; Tennessee Highway Patrol; police seizures; property; drug cases
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Workers: We Were Cheated Out of Pay. Restaurant Cleaning Company Says Pay Deductions Legal. Labor Experts Not So Sure.
This investigation found that "CanAmera, a Canadian-based company that cleans restaurants in four states and Ontario, violated a host of state and federal labor laws, including laws governing minimum wage, overtime, a day of rest and federal and tax withholdings. The company also illegally withheld money from workers' paychecks. The company hired worked with limited English skills with promises of a good job. But, in fact, the mostly Spanish speaking workers found themselves fighting for money they said was owed to them."
Tags: taxes; pay withholdings; wages; Wal-Mart
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The Shadow People
In the midst of rapid immigration to the Hoosiers state, The Indianapolis Eye discovers that all's not well with the teeming Hispanic population who come from distant places to settle down here for menial jobs. The Eye reveals that billions of dollars are being taken away from the paycheks in taxes and social security of the "shadow people" and not attributed to them. In 2000 the amount deducted from illegal workers' payrolls touched nearly $ 49 billion without being attributed to them.l
Tags: Mexican; hispanics; social security
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The Tow-Away Tax Break
This article investigates the concept of car donation programs and discovers that these programs benefit everyone but the charities they are intended to help. The foremost beneficiary is the car donor who can get a tax deduction of about $1200 for a car that's hardly worth $200. The second beneficiaries are the fundraisers who victimize these charities, the story says. Also, the report points out that of the $37 million raised by commercial fundraisers in 1991 through the sale of donated vehicles, only $11.5 million reached charities.
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The State of Generosity: Race and geography found to be powerful forces in giving; Salt Lake City tops donor list.
According to the article, "The Chronicle's studies of giving by city, county, and state are based on Internal Revenue Service records of Americans who earned $50,000 or more and itemized their deductions, representing 18 percent of all U.S. taxpayers and accounting for nearly 54 percent of all money earned in the nation. Those taxpayers donated $97-billion to charity, about 80 percent of the total $122-billion donated by all individuals in 1997, according to estimates compiled by Giving USA, the study of charitable giving published by the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy."
Tags: generosity; giving; charity; charities; money; income; taxpayers; charitable; donations; deductions; finances; poor
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Wall Street Concocts New Tax-Saving Ploy; Then It's Feds' Turn
Michael D. Thomson, a Washington bureaucrat, uncovers a new ploy major corporations are using to generate billions of dollars worth of tax deductions. The maneuver, which is known as "step-down preferred stock," helped corporations elude federal income taxes by increasing the deductibility of loan repayments.
Tags: Taxes; loan repayments; corporations
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Donated Cars: A License for Abuse?
Many charities receive donations of used cars. The authors expose the possibilities for fraud within the system and highlight both positive and negative aspects. The article also discusses legislation that could affect the system.
Tags: tax breaks; deduction; charity; Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
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American Dreams
"Each year, hundreds of non-English speaking Mexican men and women are recruited by one of the largest landscaping corporations in the U.S., Torre & Bruglio of Pontiac, MI. T&B brings them in the U.S. under the special federal 'Guestworker' program to live and work in suburban Detroit for eight months. They are promised good housing and wages of $9 to $12 and hour to trim shrubs and cut grass --a fortune for most, who live in a country where the minimum wage is $5 a day, if they can find work." This report shows how these people were living in dangerous and deplorable houses, with major health code and zoning violations. The reporters also found that T&B would make all kinds of deductions from their salaries to pay for rent, refrigerators, furniture, television sets, uniforms, boots and equipment necessary to perform the work they were hired for. They also found that these workers were making less than minimum wage. All this on top of several violations of federal labor law.
Tags: Mexican workers; federal labor law; illegal deductions; fraud; Torre & Bruglio; Michigan; Detroit; TAPE; TV; TRANSCRIPT
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Tax Exempt!
U.S. News & World Report investigates various tax-code violations by nonprofits. Many nonprofits look and act like normal companies, the story finds. They operate numbers of successful ventures, make profits, and report exorbitant executive compensations that have caught the eye of the Internal Revenue Service. Many big names, including National Geographic, NASDAQ, and the National Rifle Association, enjoy tax-exempt status along with more than 1.1 million nonprofits. Some of the key findings are: many nonprofits spend huge dollars on lobbying the Congress; hospitals for indigent patients are not much different from hospitals operating for profit; nonprofits usually report their businesses as related to their main activity, consequently to their tax-exempt status.
Tags: Alta Bates Medical Center; National Football League; charities; lobbying; lobbyists; Congress; IRS; 501(c); Internal Revenue Code; associations; deductions