Читать книгу The Tax Law of Charitable Giving - Bruce Hopkins R., Bruce R. Hopkins, David Middlebrook - Страница 50
(d) Concept of Unrelated Business
ОглавлениеThe term unrelated trade or business is defined to mean “any trade or business the conduct of which is not substantially related (aside from the need of such organization for income or funds or the use it makes of the profits derived) to the exercise or performance by such organization of its charitable, educational, or other purpose or function constituting the basis for its exemption.”535 Thus, a regularly conducted trade or business is subject to tax, unless it is substantially related to accomplishment of the organization's exempt purpose.536 To be substantially related, the activity must have a substantial causal relationship to the achievement of an exempt purpose.537 The fact that an asset is essential to the conduct of an organization's exempt activities does not shield commercial income from taxation when that income was produced by that asset.538 The income-producing activities must still meet the causal relationship test if the income is not to be subject to tax.539 This issue arises when an organization owns a facility or other assets that are put to dual use. For example, the operation of an auditorium as an ordinary motion picture theater for public entertainment in the evening would be treated as an unrelated activity even though the theater is used exclusively for tax-exempt purposes during regular hours.540
A related concept is that activities should not be conducted on a scale larger than is reasonably necessary for performance of the exempt functions.541 Activities in excess of the needs of exempt functions constitute the conduct of an unrelated business.542