Decoupling Tax Exemption for Charitable Organizations

[T]his article proposes a new approach to defining the term “charitable” for tax purposes that both respects the essence of tax-exempt eleemosynary activity and injects an element of clarity that has eluded the use of the term in modern tax parlance. Part I traces the evolution of the legal concept of charity, with emphasis on the shift in focus from poverty relief to social action facilitated through the device of trust law. I argue that it is in this shift of emphasis that the concept of charity became entangled in property concepts and thereby transformed into something wholly unrelated to its original construction. Part II illustrates the often unprincipled and random manner in which the charitable concept has been applied in the context of federal income tax law. This anomalous situation has been perpetuated due to the lack of any satisfactorily articulated exegesis, resulting in uncertainty in the application of the law and rendering impotent any intelligent discussion of the underlying social policy issues surrounding the charitable tax provisions. In Part III, the parameters of reaching an acceptable reconciliation of social abstraction and legal terminology are explored. Finally, Part IV articulates an approach to the tax definition of charitable uses that replaces what has become a frail and muddled landscape with a new, sturdier foundation. This new foundation is not intended to end the need for discussion on the subject, but rather to provide a currently missing basis for discussing the real policy questions that have been allowed to escape scrutiny by the obfuscatory concealment of antiquated legal terminology that has been left too long unexamined

A classification of data quality assessment and improvement methods

Data quality (DQ) assessment and improvement in larger information systems would often not be feasible without using suitable “DQ methods”, which are algorithms that can be automatically executed by computer systems to detect and/or correct problems in datasets. Currently, these methods are already essential, and they will be of even greater importance as the quantity of data in organisational systems grows. This paper provides a review of existing methods for both DQ assessment and improvement and classifies them according to the DQ problem and problem context. Six gaps have been identified in the classification, where no current DQ methods exist, and these show where new methods are required as a guide for future research and DQ tool development.This is the accepted manuscript. It's currently embargoed pending publication by Inderscience

A risk based model for quantifying the impact of information quality

Information quality is one of the key determinants of information system success. When information quality is poor, it can cause a variety of risks in an organization. To manage resources for information quality improvement effectively, it is necessary to understand where, how, and how much information quality impacts an organization's ability to successfully deliver its objectives. So far, existing approaches have mostly focused on the measurement of information quality but not adequately on the impact that information quality causes. This paper presents a model to quantify the business impact that arises through poor information quality in an organization by using a risk based approach. It hence addresses the inherent uncertainty in the relationship between information quality and organizational impact. The model can help information managers to obtain quantitative figures which can be used to build reliable and convincing business cases for information quality improvement.EPSRCThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version can be found on the publisher's website at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166361513002467 © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Resources for parents raising a disabled child in the UK

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record