Colleges reckon with new endowment tax and conservative antipathy

By Joseph Lawler

Published February 6, 2018 5:01am ET

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Colleges reckon with new endowment tax and conservative antipathy — The stated purpose of the new excise tax was not to punish colleges, but instead to align the tax treatment of university endowments with private foundations such as the Ford Foundation, which face a 2 percent excise tax on earnings if they don't hit a certain level of distributions. | Photobuay

Colleges and universities are beginning to comprehend that they are a disfavored group at risk in the Trump era.

Any ambiguity about that was cleared up when President Trump and congressional Republicans delivered a message of disapproval in the form of a new 1.4 percent tax on the gains of large university endowments included in the tax overhaul. The new tax will hit schools such as Harvard and Yale that many conservatives see as part of the antagonistic Left.

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Congress Harvard University Higher Education House Ways and Means Committee Joseph Lawler Kevin Brady Koch brothers Lamar Smith Steven Mnuchin Taxes