Tax exemptions

Retailers are hoping to entice back-to-school shoppers this summer.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened a probe into the tax-exempt status of a charity funded by pharmaceutical companies, threatening a lifeline the industry uses to help patients buy expensive drugs for cancer, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and a group of 14 other senators from both parties are asking the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department to clarify their rules to enable more lenders to refinance student loans.

President Donald Trump took executive action Thursday to give churches and religious groups greater leeway to engage in politics without risking their tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service may be on the verge of loosening recent restrictions on conservation easement tax breaks that were imposed at the end of the Obama administration.

Even though the Internal Revenue Service approves 94 percent of the 501(c)(3) applications it receives through the simplified Form 1023-EZ, approximately a quarter of them do not pass the test.