Earlier today I had the wonderful opportunity to guest lecture at Scott Curran‘s Lawyers as Social Innovators class at Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Here are my notes for the class: Introduction – Nonprofit Law On one side of the street you see: a theatre,...
IRS & FEDERAL TAX ISSUES
Disclosures of Donors: Recent Developments
2018 has seen several developments regarding the required disclosures of donors by nonprofits. Disclosures of Donors – Charitable Organizations On September 11, 2018, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the right of the California Attorney General (AG) to require from reporting...
IRS Guidance on UBIT Silos – 512(a)(6) – PART II
In Part I of this two-part article on IRS Notice 2018-67 regarding the calculation of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), we discussed the need to separate different lines of unrelated business activities, which is now required to calculate an organization’s unrelated business income tax (UBIT)....
IRS Guidance on UBIT Silos – 512(a)(6) – PART I
On August 21, 2018, the IRS released Notice 2018-67 which both provides preliminary guidance and seeks comments on the calculation of unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Tax-exempt organization that may be earning unrelated business income should be aware of the changes...
Whaaat?! Nonprofits need to pay taxes for providing employee parking!
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), if your nonprofit provides parking to its employees, it may now need to pay unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on the value of that parking benefit. That’s right – your tax-exempt organization may now need to pay income tax on an...
Can a 501(c)(3) Organization Change Into a 501(c)(4) Organization?
Is it possible for a 501(c)(3) organization to change into a 501(c)(4) organization? The short answer is no (Revenue Procedure 2017-5). But it may be possible for a 501(c)(3) organization to cause the creation of a 501(c)(4) organization and subsequently dissolve, leaving only the 501(c)(4) organization. This strategy has...
Treasury Eliminates Donor Information Disclosures by 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) Organizations
The Treasury Department announced a change in the regulations making it no longer necessary for 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) organizations to disclose the identities of their donors on their annual information returns to the IRS. More specifically, tax-exempt organizations described by section 501(c), other than section 501(c)(3) organizations, are no...
CalNonprofits Webinar: Hot Topics to Keep Your Nonprofit Out of Hot Water
I’ll be joining CalNonprofits CEO Jan Masaoka for a webinar on Thursday, June 28th from 11am to 12pm (Pacific). We’ll be discussing the major ongoing filing obligations that California nonprofits that are exempt under IRC Section 501(c)(3) are subject to each year. Join us for an engaging webinar on...
Private Benefit in Tandem Structures
Thanks to our friends at Perlman+Perlman for providing us with permission to re-publish this important post on private benefit issues raised by nonprofit/for-profit tandem structures by one of its partners, Allen Bromberger, whose bio we include at the end of the post. One of the basic principles of tax-exempt...
IRS TE/GE FY 2017 Accomplishments and IRS FY 2017 Data Book
In connection with the release of the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities FY 2018 Work Plan (which we wrote about here), the IRS promised to release the complete FY 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017) accomplishments when final results became available. The Tax Exempt and Government Entities FY...