Colleges getting away with huge tax-free endowments

Look in the dictionary for the definition of the verb “invert.” It means “to turn upside down.”

With all the talk of evil corporations merging with foreign companies for tax benefits, or “inversion,” you’d think it was a major economic problem affecting millions of hard-working Americans.

In fact, inversions amount to a measly $2 billion, far outshadowed by the largest tax dodge on the globe, college endowments, which truly turn the tax code upside down.

While Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other DC politicians choose to attack and challenge US corporations looking to efficiently expand their businesses, they turn a blind eye to the $500 billion, tax-free pool of cash housed in universities across America.

This week, both Yale and Harvard announced their head-of-the-class investment performance for the year ended June 30.

Yale earned a 20.2 percent return, bringing its endowment fund to an eye-popping $20.6 billion.

Yale also said last week it is rather proud of its performance over the last two decades, as it highlighted its 13.9 percent returns compared with that of average university endowment returns of only 9.2 percent in the past 20 years.

Harvard was not far behind, as it had an annual return of 15.4 percent, bringing its bulging endowment to $36.4 billion.

These obscene amounts of tax- free cash being professionally managed all are treated under the guise that they are “not for profit” entities.

Well, the intellectual elites and the faux education cheerleaders in Washington ought to be downright ashamed of themselves.

They’d rather quibble over interest rates on student loans or demonize corporations trying to move away from the highest corporate tax rates in the world.

Both are a tiny sum compared to what kids and their entire families spend per year to attend college.

It’s time to deflate the bulging endowments down to manageable size by requiring much higher tuition disbursements to come out of all university endowments.