ExemptOrgResource.com is an online resource for information and insight on the unique legal issues impacting nonprofit organizations. The blog is designed to keep the nonprofit, tax-exempt organization community up-to-date on legal developments, changing regulations and good practices.
Under newly released rules, certain tax-exempt organizations are no longer required to disclose personally identifiable donor information on their annual Form 990 filings. This change does not affect Section 501(c)(3) or Section 527 organizations.
Last year, we posted about amendments to the New York Not-for-Profit Corporation Law (the “NPCL”) and the New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (the “EPTL”) here and here. As we noted, the amendments were signed into law last year and take effect on May 27, 2017 (with the exception of the amendment to NPCL Section 713(f) regarding employees serving as board chairs, which took effect January 1, 2017).
Over the summer, we posted about Bill No. A. 10365B/S. 7913, containing amendments to the New York Not-for-Profit Corporation Law (the “NPCL”) and the New York Estates, Powers and Trusts Law (the “EPTL”) here. After introduction in May and passage by both houses in June, the bill was delivered to the Governor earlier this month and signed into law on November 28.
The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has announced plans to update Revenue Ruling 67-390 that requires an organization to “re-apply” for tax-exemption if it changes its corporate structure, including in situations where an exempt organization reincorporates under the laws of another state (even where there is no change in corporate/charitable purposes).
We have recently written about the increasing importance of cybersecurity as an aspect of risk management for nonprofits in light of the proliferation of data security breaches across different sectors.
We live in an era of increasingly prevalent cybercrime, and nonprofits are in the crosshairs. Harvard University, Penn State University and two BlueCross BlueShield entities are just a few nonprofit organizations that reported cyberattacks in 2015, breaches to their data security systems ultimately compromising thousands of personal, confidential and proprietary records.
The IRS and the Department of the Treasury have released proposed regulations that address rules relating to Type I and Type III “supporting organizations” under the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) and applicable Treasury Regulations (the “Regulations”).
On December 11, 2015 Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into a law a bill amending New York’s Not-for-Profit Corporation Law (the “NPCL”), Estates Powers and Trusts Law (the “EPTL”) and Religious Corporations Law (the “RCL”). The amendments are intended in large part to clarify certain provisions of the New York Non-Profit Revitalization Act of 2013 (the “Act”), which reformed statutory requirements relating to governance of not-for-profit corporations and wholly charitable trusts in the state and expanded the Attorney General’s enforcement powers; most provisions of the Act went into effect in 2014.
The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) has updated the procedures applicable to the IRS Exempt Organizations Determinations unit (“EO Determinations”) requests for additional information in connection with applications for tax exemption and related determinations. Under these new rules, applicants have much less time to respond to requests for additional information (and IRS staff have less discretion in granting applicants extensions of time to respond to such requests).
The IRS has released final regulations that will impact how U.S. private foundations determine that a foreign charitable organization – i.e., one not organized under U.S. law or recognized as a public charity by the IRS – is the “equivalent” of a U.S. public charity for certain purposes. This determination is useful in the context of a private foundation’s compliance with the qualifying distribution rules under Section 4942 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) as well as with the taxable expenditure rules under Section 4945 of the Code.
As the 2016 Presidential election season heats up—and in light of an internal memorandum on political activity audit procedures circulated within the IRS last month—we’d like to take the opportunity to remind our 501(c)(3) clients, colleagues and friends about of the federal tax law prohibitions on political activities conducted by 501(c)(3) organizations and the applicability of those prohibitions to the activities of employees of 501(c)(3) organizations.
