Andrew Schulz

Of Counsel, Adler & Colvin

Andrew Schulz is a member of the American Bar Association (EO Committee, Tax Law Section) and the DC Bar Association.

Mr. Schulz is a frequent speaker at national conferences, including the American Bar Association, Georgetown Law Representing & Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations, the University of Texas School of Law Nonprofit Organizations Institute, and other national and regional events.

He is admitted to the bar in the states of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Prior to joining Adler & Colvin, Mr. Schulz served as General Counsel for New Venture Fund, where he provided guidance to the organization and its fiscally sponsored projects on a range of corporate governance, tax, advocacy, and other legal issues. Previously, Mr. Schulz served as General Counsel for Arabella Advisors, was the Executive Vice President at Foundation Source, and held several positions in the legal and public policy departments at the Council on Foundations.

Contributions

May Our Board Pay a Disqualified Person for Services Such as Portfolio Management?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

May our board pay someone for portfolio management if they are an employee of a company owned or led by a board member and direct descendant of the foundation’s father? Yes, even if the individual being employed to do that work is a disqualified person, paying someone reasonable and necessary compensation to manage the assets of the foundation, regardless of… Read More

Is it Self-Dealing to Give a Grant to a Specific Child’s Tuition?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

A trustee wants to give a grant for their child to attend a private school. The trustee then instructs the school, a legal 501(c)(3), to apply to the foundation for a scholarship grant that will be applied to the specific child’s tuition. Is this self- dealing? This is self-dealing. You’re absolutely prohibited from making a payment that would be earmarked… Read More

Can the Foundation Pay Rent to the Family Office?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

The foundation may not pay rent to the family office, because the family office is considered a disqualified person, and that’s not a personal service. However, a foundation and a family office can share office space, provided that the person to whom the foundation is paying rent, i.e., the landlord, is not a disqualified person. So, if it’s a third-party… Read More

Toeing the Line: Legal Pitfalls in Family Foundation Governance

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

Should we accept those tickets to the opening of the new local theater that just arrived in the mail? Can our family office charge our foundation for rent? Is it o.k. for us to pay Uncle Bob to manage the foundation’s investment portfolio? Can we make a grant to our family's donor advised fund to help make year-end payout requirements? … Read More

Are There Any Problems with a Foundation Setting Up a Donor-Advised Fund?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

There are no problems with a foundation setting up a donor-advised fund. When the Pension Protection Act was drafted back in 2006, one of the things they considered explicitly was prohibiting distributions from donor-advised funds to private foundations, because of the way you can arbitrage the tax rules. They left that out, because they considered it to already be illegal… Read More

Are There Any Regulations on Gifts That Are Accepted by Family Members?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

Are there any regulations on gifts that are accepted by family members? Should we not accept restricted gifts, for instance? You have to be careful about closely held business interests because of the restrictions on self- dealing and who you can sell them back to. There are no laws that explicitly prohibit certain gifts. Restrictions, if they’re for a particular… Read More

Should Family Members Write Two Checks for an Event, One for the Charitable Portion, and One for the Non-Deductible Portion?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

Well, this one’s easy, but not for the reason that you think. You should stop that process all together. The IRS has ruled that you can’t split payments that way. If there’s a deductible portion and non-deductible, this process, known as “bifurcation” is not permissible. The IRS has said you can’t write the charitable portion out of the foundation and… Read More

What Happens if You Under-Estimate Excise Taxes?

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Andrew Schulz

In addition to paying the tax on investment income, which is either 2 percent or 1 percent, foundations have to pay quarterly estimated tax payments. Typically, they anticipate what those payments are. If you’ve underpaid it, you need to rectify it, and how you do so really depends on how much you’ve underpaid by. If you’re grossly and intentionally underpaying… Read More

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