Hanoi Jane's Charities Not So Charitable
Thursday, 12 Dec 2013 07:35 PM
According to The Smoking Gun, the Jane Fonda Foundation Inc. in its most recent tax return — covering calendar year 2011 — reported zero contributions. Returns from the previous four years also showed nothing distributed to charities. In 2006, the website reported, the foundation donated $1,000 to the Atlanta Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.
Not that the foundation headed by Fonda — derisively dubbed Hanoi Jane after an anti-war trip to North Vietnam in 1972 — can’t afford to be generous. Based in Atlanta, the charity group, for which she claims to work 10 hours a week, filings showed, has assets of $798,133.
Her not-so-largesse could get her in trouble.
The Smoking Gun reported IRS regulations require private foundations to distribute annually at least 5 percent of their assets or face stiff penalties. If held to the so-called 5 percent rule, Fonda’s foundation was responsible for, but failed to, hand out about $40,000 in 2011, the website said.
If the foundation was sluggish on the charity front, it was active on Wall Street, TheSmoking Gun noted, making 166 trades that earned about $2,200, according to the last tax filing.
The returns show Fonda herself funneled in most of the assets years ago — the group was set up in 2004 — though the website noted more than $320,000 came from a Connecticut firm that books speaking gigs for the actress.
"This looks awful," Glenn Selig, a communications specialist, told Fox News. "No way around it. It looks like Jane Fonda doesn't care and she is involved in the foundation just to make herself look good. Unfortunately, not donating anything makes her look bad."
Fonda has been lauded for her charity work, including for the Alzheimer’s Association, Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Heifer International, Peace Over Violence and V-Day, an anti-domestic violence group, according to the organization Look To The Stars.
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