Don Keelan: Perhaps nonprofit endowments should be taxed

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Don Keelan, a certified public accountant and resident of Arlington. The piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
Buried deep in the U.S. Tax Code is Section 531. It is there that resides a dreaded tax for corporations – the accumulated earnings tax. The 20 percent tax (penalty) is applied to excess corporate earnings that are being held by a company for no reason other than to avoid having to pay out dividends, taxable to its shareholders.