Jane Fonda’s private foundation has nearly $800,000 in assets but hasn’t made a charitable contribution during the last five years for which it has filed federal tax returns, it was reported Thursday.
The Smoking Gun web site suggested that the Jane Fonda Foundation violated IRS rules and could be subject to stiff penalties.
But Fonda’s attorney said the web site got it wrong and insisted the charity had complied with all regulations.
The Atlanta-based foundation’s most recent tax return, filed last year for 2011, said it had cash, stock, and a bond portfolio valued at $798,133. Most of the assets came from Fonda herself.
The filing listed no charitable donations in 2011. Prior tax returns showed no payouts in 2010, 2009, 2008 or 2007. IRS regulations require a private foundation to make a distribution of at least five percent of its assets each year.
That would mean nearly $40,000 should have been distributed by the foundation in 2011.
Fonda’s attorney, Barry Hirsch, said the foundation made large charitable contributions starting in 2004 that were carried over through 2010 to meet the 5 percent requirement and comply with the IRS rules.
He said it was later discovered that a charitable payment was inadvertently omitted in 2011 and that it was subsequently made this year.
Among the charities that received donations from the foundation in the earlier years were Emory University – The Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, Thomasville Community Resource Center, Upaya Zen Center, Pecos Valley Cowboy Church and Rosie’s Theatre Kids.
The foundation lists the 75-year-old Oscar-winning actress as its president and chairman of the board and said she devotes 10 hours a week to its charitable work.
The last donation listed for the foundation in IRS filings was in 2006, when $1,000 went to the Atlanta Obstetric and Gynecology Society, the Smoking Gun said.
The IRS’s five percent rule is designed to stop foundations from stockpiling and investing funds while never making contributions.
The foundation also made 166 separate stock trades in 2011, netting about $2,200, records show.