Takeshi Fujitani

S.J.D. Candidate

Status:	Not In Residence
Email:	tfujitan@law.harvard.edu

Dissertation

Does the Timing of Charity Matter? -- A Theoretical Reexamination of the U.S. Tax Policy for Endowed Nonprofit Organizations

It’s puzzling why we maintain income tax exemption for endowed nonprofits, the wealth accumulation of which even appears excessive. It becomes more perplexing when one sees that income tax exemptions hardly help small, financially troubled nonprofits (because they have no taxable income anyway). How should we make sense of this? One answer would be that charitable accumulation will be eventually spent out for the charitable goals to which the society has committed itself, thus concern over charitable wealth accumulation is pointless. However, tax-subsidized endowment accumulation often contradicts with fulfillment of current charitable needs. This dissertation focuses on this issue – “Timing of Charity.” It involves many issues such as intergenerational equity, efficiency on charitable resource allocation, and desirable level of autonomy and accountability of nonprofits vis-à-vis the public. Through introducing different perspectives into the field of tax law and policy, this dissertation will explore the tax policy implications with due consideration of the complexity of nonprofit sector.

Fields of Research and Supervisors

Tax Law and Policy for Nonprofit Organizations, with Professor Daniel Halperin, Harvard Law School, Overall Faculty Supervisor
Political and Social Theory of Civil Society, with Professor Martha L. Minow, Harvard Law School
Economic Analysis of Nonprofit Firms, with Professor J. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School

Additional Research Interests

Taxation and Budget Process
Economic Analysis of Organizations
Political Theories on Associations

Education

Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2002-Present
Harvard Law School, I.T.P. 2003
Harvard Law School, LL.M. 2002
University of Tokyo, Japan, LL.B. 1999

Appointments and Fellowships

University of Hokkaido, Japan, 2004-present, Associate Professor of Law (on leave)
University of Tokyo, Japan, 1999-2004, Research Associate

Additional Information

Languages: English (fluent), Japanese (native), German (read)