Tax Exemption

The Internal Revenue Service has notified municipal borrowers that more than 100 bonds might lose their tax-exempt status.Charles Anderson, manager of the tax-exempt bond group in the IRS' Baltimore office, said yesterday that he sent "adverse letters" to municipal borrowers warning them that the IRS has declared their issues taxable on a preliminary basis. He didn't disclose names of any of the issuers.He said most of the issuers in jeopardy of losing their status violated rules against arbitrage, or investing proceeds from tax-exempt bond sales in higher-yielding investments.

WASHINGTON -- In public, televangelist Pat Robertson is a smiling preacher who insists his Christian Coalition is a nonpartisan group that seeks only to educate voters about religious issues, not to elect one party or specific politicians.But behind closed doors last week, Robertson revealed himself as a tough political boss who expects his troops to issue marching orders to a Republican Congress he says they elected and to handpick the country's next Republican president in 2000."We're not a bunch of ingenues any more," he told about 100 state leaders at a meeting in Atlanta.

Howard County's only private school for children with emotional and mental disabilities is to make its case to the County Council on Monday night for a $3.4 million tax-exempt bond that would smooth the way for a badly needed addition.The School for Contemporary Education in North Laurel plans to build a 20,000-square-foot, two-story addition on the rear of its existing facility on the Howard County side of Whiskey Bottom Road, just east of U.S. 1.The proposed addition would add eight classrooms to the current 13, increasing student capacity to about 160. Also, a gymnasium and office space would be included.

WASHINGTON -- The case against House Speaker Newt Gingrich is so mired in partisan infighting that the specific charges against him have been largely obscured.They will be aired at a hearing that could begin as early as today. Staff writer Susan Baer provides a look at the issues in a case that has been smoldering on Capitol Hill for two years.What is the coming hearing all about?Members of the House ethics committee are meeting to decide on a punishment for Gingrich, who acknowledged last month that he had violated a House rule.

The facts sound familiar: a class designed to train political activists using tax-deductible money, involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, with organizing help from Republican Party officials.A lengthy investigation of the class concludes that those GOP ties were misrepresented to government officials.But it isn't "Renewing American Civilization," the class at the center of the ethics case currently tormenting Gingrich. It's the American Campaign Academy, a case with striking parallels made all the more intriguing because the same individuals played key roles in both enterprises.

Two nonprofit organizations have made campaign contributions to the Committee to Elect Carl O. Snowden for Mayor of Annapolis, an apparent violation of federal tax laws.Kunta Kinte Celebrations, Inc. and Banneker-Douglas Museum Foundation, which contributed a total of $315, are registered tax-exempt organizations that are prohibited from participating in any political activity, according to the Internal Revenue Service.A third contributor, the Anne Arundel branch of the NAACP, is a nonprofit group that is not prevented by law to participate, but is discouraged by its national organization from endorsing or contributing to any political candidate, said Dennis Courtland Hayes, general counsel to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Take tax exemption, summer workers urgedAttention, summer workers!If you expect to earn less than $6,400 a year, you can avoid having state taxes withheld from your paycheck. The interest-free loan to the state isn't worth the hassle of processing paperwork and issuing refund checks.That's the message Maryland Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein wants to send to students planning to hold jobs this summer.Every year, his office mails out about 176,000 tax refunds to summer workers who could have had slightly bigger paychecks.

The Baltimore City Council gave unanimous, fast-track approval last night to a compromise early retirement plan that could eliminate several hundred city jobs by the end of the year.But some key council members and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke continue to differ on whether the plan would also erase the need to raise any taxes.Council members said that the plan giving about 1,500 eligible employees incentives to retire by Dec. 31 should generate enough savings to close a $4.9 million gap in the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Police, firefighters and teachers are not eligible.

Dear Mr. Gisriel: My question involves the one-time $125,000 capital gains tax exclusion that people age 55 or over can claim when they sell a home.Can I sell my house at age 53 years and six months, not buy another house, and then wait until I am 55 to exercise my one-time capital gains exclusion?Also, what are the rules if two individuals over 55 are contemplating getting married and both own homes?Ralph PitlerTowsonDear Mr. Pitler: Technically speaking, if neither you nor your spouse is at least 55 years old when you settle on the sale of your existing house, then you do not qualify for the IRS Section 121 one-time capital gains tax exemption that allows older homeowners to keep up to $125,000 of their resale profits tax free.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Colorado would become a much less hospitable place for churches and charities under a proposed initiative to eliminate almost all property-tax exemptions for churches and nonprofit organizations.John Patrick Michael Murphy, a personal-injury lawyer and host of a weekly radio talk show who is leading the effort to get the measure on the November ballot, said that more than 80,000 signatures have been collected on petitions. He said they will be delivered to the secretary of state Thursday.