Amy Wax
Last week, Joe Patrice asked me whether contributions to Professor Amy Wax’s legal defense fund were tax deductible. He pointed to a website titled the Amy Wax Legal Defense Fund (AWLDF). It stated that the funds are to be used to fight the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s administration, which is seeking “major sanctions” against her. And it says that contributions are tax deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
While I tweeted my initial thought, I want to take this opportunity to dig deeper. Let’s look at what the current tax law says about whether contributions to legal defense funds are eligible for a tax deduction. Next, let’s see whether there are any workarounds in case contributions are not tax deductible. Lastly, I want to share some irregularities I found with this website that make me wonder whether this could be a scam.
Before I continue, I want to state that I have no animosity toward Wax. She has been accused of making racist statements towards minorities, including Asians. That kind of mentality and rhetoric has no place in modern society, especially from someone who has both a medical and law degree from top universities. However, I also get that some people tend to sensationalize stories and take quotes out of context, either to get moar clicks, to drive a certain narrative, to expose a bigger societal issue (supposedly), because they have severe Republican Derangement Syndrome, or simply to get a blue…
