Endowment tax is taxation of endowments. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has proposed taxing MIT on these previously exempt, non-profit earnings.[1] A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution, with the stipulation that it be invested, and the principal remain intact. The total endowment can be over a billion dollars at some of the United States' richest universities. The non-profit status of some institutions like hospitals has been questioned in the United States House Ways and Means Committee[2][3]