IRS may not permit fund, controller says
Alternatives sought to help staff in need
By Brandon Ortiz
Staff Reporter

Staff Assembly is considering alternatives to the proposed Employee Emergency Fund after doubts whether the Internal Revenue Service would permit such a plan.

The Emergency Fund is a proposal, introduced in fall 2001, designed to financially help TCU employees in a time of crisis, Staff Assembly members say. It asks employees to voluntarily donate an hour of their salary a month and make contributions for funding.

“I don’t quite understand all this tax mumbo jumbo, but the bottom line is in our current situation we are not going to be able to set up an Emergency Fund as proposed by our ad hoc committee,” Chairman Bob Seal told the Staff Assembly Tuesday in its monthly meeting.

Cheryl Wilson, university controller, said problems with the proposal lie in several areas.

Wilson said the IRS would have interpreted gifts by the Emergency Fund as compensation, opening the door to tax implications.

In addition to this, TCU does not have the tax exempt status to have such a program, she said. Wilson said TCU is classified as an educational organization, not a charitable one.

“The IRS takes a very dim view of organizations, whether they are profit or nonprofit, for handling money in this regard,” Seal said. “They are not likely to approve anything like this.

“The problem is we can’t have any TCU employee actually handling the money.”

Tara Pope, chairwoman of the adhoc committee responsible for drafting the proposal, said she was discouraged but still determined to modify or create an alternative for the Emergency Fund.

“The idea has a lot of support and the support is still there,” Pope said. “I am confident that we can find another way to help staff in need.”

A few of the alternatives Seal said the Staff Assembly could consider are: Creating an Emergency Response Team, which would connect victims to charitable organizations that would provide loans or gifts; posting a notice on TCU This Week or TCU Announce asking for contributions that would go directly to the victim.

In other business, Chancellor Michael Ferrari spoke at the meeting about the university’s budget passed last month by the Board of Trustees. Ferrari and John Weis, assistant vice chancellor for Human Resources, said a methodology for distributing the $100,000 in supplemental structural funding to alleviate salary compression among long term staff is currently being developed. Salary increases go into effect June 1.

Brandon Ortiz
b.p.ortiz@student.tcu.edu

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