Tax-exempt organizations

TOPICS / TAX

January 4, 2018

Form 1023-EZ will ask applicants for mission and activities

The streamlined application for tax-exempt status will ask organizations to describe their mission and activities for the first time.

November 1, 2017

Social club is liable for taxes on UBTI

The Tax Court rejects the taxpayer’s argued profit motive and disallows losses related to nonmember services.

February 6, 2017

What does it mean to be transparent?

The goal of transparency is to establish and maintain the trust of the organization’s key stakeholders.

January 31, 2017

New Form 990-EZ has help icons to aid exempt organizations in filing

The IRS announces new Form 990-EZ with help icons to assist organizations with accurate filing.

December 1, 2016

Telling the not-for-profit story through Form 990

Form 990, which is publicly available, provides an opportunity to attract donors and appeal to other stakeholders by compellingly describing an organization’s purpose and accomplishments.

October 1, 2016

IRS implements new Sec. 501(c)(4) notice requirement

Form 8976 notifying of intent to operate must be filed within 60 days of an organization’s formation.

July 8, 2016

IRS implements new Sec. 501(c)(4) registration requirement

Social welfare benefit organizations are now required to notify the Internal Revenue Service of their formation and intent to operate under Sec. 501(c)(4).

April 1, 2016

IRS withdraws controversial charitable donation information-reporting rules

After receiving tens of thousands of negative comment letters, the Service makes an about-face.

March 23, 2016

Exempt organizations’ applications do not contain protected return information

A federal appeals court ordered the IRS to comply with a lower court’s order that it hand over the names of organizations that had been on its “Be on the lookout” list when it was mishandling applications for tax-exempt status.

March 7, 2016

What to do when a client wants to give an LLC or limited partnership unit to charity

Many charitable organizations will not accept a gift of an LLC or limited partnership units because the entity’s business is not part of their charitable mission.

March 1, 2016

Form 1023-EZ: First-year results are in

A year after introducing a streamlined application process for tax-exempt organizations, the IRS reports on customer satisfaction and what worked and what didn’t.

January 20, 2016

Notice postpones Sec. 501(c)(4) social welfare organization requirements

A new notice requirement recently enacted by Congress in the wake of the scandal regarding the IRS’s handling of Sec. 501(c)(4) applications will not be implemented immediately, the IRS announced.

January 7, 2016

Controversial charitable donation rules withdrawn

The IRS announced that it is withdrawing proposed regulations released last September that would have allowed charities to file information returns with the IRS and donors instead of providing contemporaneous written acknowledgments of charitable donations.

December 1, 2015

IRS to implement donee reporting for charities

The Service issues prop. regs. and will develop a new information return.

September 16, 2015

Charities would be permitted to issue information returns to donors

Charities will be allowed to file information returns instead of providing contemporaneous written acknowledgment of charitable donations under proposed regulations issued by the IRS.

April 30, 2015

“Be on the lookout” lists gone from IRS reviews of Sec. 501(c)(4) applications

Two years after finding the IRS used inappropriate criteria when reviewing applications for tax-exempt status under Sec. 501(c)(4) and delayed the processing of some applications, the TIGTA issued a follow-up report to check on the IRS’s progress in eliminating the controversial practices.

February 1, 2015

Seventh Circuit denies plaintiffs’ standing to challenge parsonage allowance

Group’s leaders did not claim the income exemption. Finding the plaintiffs lacked standing, the Seventh Circuit vacated a district court’s holding that the Sec. 107(2) “parsonage” rental allowance income exclusion for ministers violates the Constitution and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss it for lack of jurisdiction. Facts: Freedom

January 1, 2015

Charitable trusts and the streamlined exempt-status application

It is not unusual for a tax adviser to suggest that a client involved in estate tax planning leave some assets to a charity.

November 1, 2014

Form 990: Late filing penalty abatement

Several types of relief may be available to not-for-profit organizations that incur penalties for violating complex filing requirements.

August 1, 2014

Exemption from PFIC regime for indirect ownership expanded

The IRS clarifies that shares held through a variety of tax-exempt organizations, plans, and accounts are generally excluded. On April 14, Treasury and the IRS announced they will amend the regulations under Sec. 1291 to provide that a U.S. person who indirectly owns stock of a passive foreign investment company