Tax Lawyer's Blog

Stephanie Strom of the New York Times reports that billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros is giving $100 million to Human Rights Watch:

It is the largest gift he has made, the largest gift by far that Human Rights Watch has ever received, and only the second gift of $100 million or more made by an individual this year, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. “We’re seeing noticeably fewer charitable gifts at the $100 million level from individuals reported than we did just a few years ago,” said Patrick Rooney, the center’s executive director. “Between 2006 and 2008, an average of about 13 gifts a year of that size by individuals was reported. In 2009, it dropped to six, and this year, we know of only one other.”

The largest known gift in 2010 was $200 million pledged by an anonymous Baylor University graduate, to be dispensed upon the donor’s death, for medical research at the university.

Uncertainty about the direction of the economy has made even the wealthiest individuals more cautious about making big philanthropic commitments, Mr. Rooney said.

Contrariness, however, is a hallmark of Mr. Soros, both as an investor and as a philanthropist. While others have held on to their money, he has made bigger gifts than ever. And he said in an interview that the gift to Human Rights Watch is the first of a series of large gifts that he plans to make.

“This is partly due to age,” said Mr. Soros, who celebrated his 80th birthday last month. “Originally I wanted to distribute all of the money during my lifetime, but I have abandoned that plan. My foundation should continue, but I still would like to do a lot of giving during my lifetime, and doing it this way, with such size, is a step in that direction.”

Last year, in the depths of the recession, Mr. Soros gave the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity that fights poverty in New York, a $50 million contribution that helped it raise significantly more than that amount. He also gave every family with children on welfare in New York State $200 to buy school supplies, a grant worth $35 million that enabled the state to gain access to some $175 million in federal money for which it would not otherwise have qualified.

So far this year, Mr. Soros has donated about $700 million to various causes, including the gift to Human Rights Watch. His hedge fund, Quantum Endowment, grew 29 percent in 2009, earning him $3.3 billion in fees and investment gains.

First, let me say that Mr. Soros should be applauded and not derided for his generosity. He is obviously sincere about the things he believes in and has put his money where his mouth is.

However, that shouldn’t stop us from wondering why the poster boy for pro-government, pro-tax and spend policies does not make his charitable donations to the federal government rather than to private charity.

I understand that one can be in favor of higher taxes, greater government regulation, and more entitlement programs and still give to private charity. But if the federal bureaucracy is as noble and efficient a distributor of services to the poor and the needy as Mr. Soros apparently believes it to be, why wouldn’t he make it rather than private charity the beneficiary of his philanthropy?

I think I know why.

Soros favors an increase in the top tax brackets not because he wants to raise money for the government, but because he wants to take money from the rich. In other words, it’s the gap between the so-called rich and the so-called poor that bunches up the collective panties of egalitarians like Soros, not any deficiency in government resources.

Soros philanthropy bears this out. After all, if his chief motive for supporting higher taxes were merely to increase government funds, wouldn’t he give at least some of his $700 million to the feds?

Judging pro-tax progressives by their actions and not their words, it would seem that they have no more faith in the efficiency and nobility of government bureacracy than anti-tax conservatives have.

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