Proposed New Form 990 Released

Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, will have a new format the IRS hopes to roll out for the 2008 tax year, in the form’s first overhaul since 1979. The changes are designed to aid transparency, with the first page of the 10-page form (one more than currently) showing a summary of the organization’s finances, operations, governance and compensation of officers. While it expands the number of related schedules from two to 15, those schedules incorporate information from the 36 attachments now possible in a uniform format designed to make the information more readily accessible and comparable among organizations. Most of the new schedules apply to relatively few filers, the IRS said; the most widely applicable one reports noncash contributions exceeding $5,000. Another new schedule asks hospitals to provide measures of their community benefit. A discussion draft is available at www.irs.gov/eo. Comments are requested by Sept. 14 on the form and related proposals, including raising filing thresholds for small organizations.