September 20, 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer — The budget deal reached late Friday in Harrisburg, which includes an extension of the state sales tax to cultural performances and venues - including museums - has stunned and angered the arts community.
September 18, 2009, The Washington Post — A federal appeals court has struck down regulations that strictly limited how nonprofit groups raise and spend money for political campaigns.
WASHINGTON, September 16, 2009 — Senator Baucus released the details of the proposed Senate health care plan, America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, which would create new and onerous requirements applicable to nonprofit hospitals starting in 2010. According to the provisions, every nonprofit hospital would be required to conduct a community health needs assessment at least once every three years, and then adopt an implementation strategy to ensure that the nonprofit hospital will meet the identified needs. Failure to complete the study in any three year period would result in a penalty on the nonprofit hospital of up to $50,000, while failure to disclose the implementation strategy would subject the nonprofit hospital to monetary penalties for filing an incomplete Form 990.
September 4, 2009, The Philanthropy Journal — The revised IRS Form 990, specifically the new Schedule K, requires increased reporting from nonprofits regarding their outstanding bond issues.
September 8, 2009 ─ To meet the tax needs of clients in the nonprofit sector, Ballard Spahr LLP has formed a tax practice group, Nonprofit Organizations.
User fees will increase for all applications for exemption (Forms 1023, 1024, and 1028) postmarked after January 3, 2010.
Washington, August 26, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — Americans reported making donations of $46.8-billion in noncash gifts in 2006, counting only the taxpayers who took total deductions of more than $500 for such gifts during the year, according to a new report from the Internal Revenue Service.
The Nonprofit Quarterly — A recent CEA report regarding the economic impacts of health care reform on small businesses completely disregards the 15 million people employed by nonprofits (in 2008, according to DHHS [PDF]) and an entire sector that accounts for 11-12% of the nation’s GDP (in 2007, according to GAO [PDF]).
August 3, 2009, Barron's — BACK IN THE GLORY DAYS, WHEN Harvard University was firmly perched in the pantheon of top-performing endowment funds, its Harvard Management Co. routinely came in for criticism for giving its managers outsized compensation packages, as well as for following investment strategies that seemed more suitable to a hard-charging Wall Street firm than to a tax-exempt charity.
July 31, 2009, OnPhilanthropy — State charity registration laws have been ignored for decades. Until earlier this year, I wouldn't have been given space to write about them. There is no penalty for breaking most of them and the few states that have penalties rarely enforce them, so there's been no incentive to comply. Until the IRS stepped in.
