Tax, Legal & Compliance

The Boston Globe's Sacha Pfeiffer, of the paper's Spotlight team, has a fantastic story about foundation trustee Mark J. Avery, who Pfeiffer mentioned in a 2003 report on the pitfalls of inherited trustee positions. In that report, Pfeiffer used Avery as an example, citing the $400,000 annual salary and other benefits he reaped simply for inheriting his late father's trustee seat. Now, Avery is back in the news after a federal court found him guilty on 11 of 17 charges...

The new overtime rule announced last week has an unlikely opponent: a progressive nonprofit federation. U.S. PIRG, a public interest group comprising about 400 state nonprofits across the U.S., called the new rule "unrealistic" and said it would have "significant negative consequences for nonprofit, cause-oriented organizations."...

Jon S. Petersen, head of Christian charity World Ambassadors, on Monday admitted to embezzling $475,000 in donations between 2010 and 2014, The Associated Press reported. Petersen, who founded the Iowa-based Christian outreach nonprofit in 1993, said he deposited the money into his personal checking account and used it to pay for his "sex addiction" and credit card debt...

Sotsium was a largely unremarkable Russian nongovernmental organization (NGO) working to stop the spread of HIV in the small Volga River city of Engels, where Russia’s HIV epidemic is growing at one of the fastest rates nationwide. Besides educational drives, the charity distributed syringes and clean needles to people at risk. But last month, a…

The Department of Labor overtime rules have changed, making millions of American salaried workers now eligible for overtime, Vice President Joe Biden announced Tuesday. Starting Dec. 1, the salary threshold for overtime eligibility will double from $23,660 to $47,476 annually (or $455 to $913 weekly). Bonuses and incentive payments may count toward up to 10 percent of the salary threshold...

Federal officials notified Prairie Meadows Thursday that they are revoking the Altoona, Iowa, casino’s nonprofit status, setting it up to lose an estimated $30 million a year in federal tax breaks. The decision ends an 18-month audit. The specific reasons the IRS yanked the nonprofit status remained unclear Thursday. Tom Flynn, the casino’s attorney, said…

The U.S. Supreme Court punted on a challenge by religious nonprofit groups to the Obamacare contraception mandate, sending the case back to lower courts to allow the parties to work out a compromise among themselves. The nonprofit groups challenged an "opt-out" provision of the law, which allowed such nonprofits to avoid providing no-cost contraception to…

Despite a strict prohibition against electioneering, nearly 90 nonprofit churches, hospitals and schools in Illinois collectively donated more than $80,000 to local campaign groups over the past decade with little or no consequences, a Better Government Association analysis found. While nonprofits, such as trade associations and unions, are allowed to engage in some campaigning, the…

Just days after it fired its executive director and chief financial officer amid controversy over $750,000 in embezzled funds, New York arts charity Healing Arts Initiative said it will shut down. The charity has been at the center of an increasingly bizarre series of events dating back to last year. In August, the organization's executive director, D. Alexandra Dyer, was attacked with drain cleaner, leaving her disfigured...

It's quick and easy to donate money to charities online, and one website in particular is ready to accept donations and distribute them to various Maryland charities. So why is one of the charities upset? Online giving is as easy as search, click and type in credit card information. The hard part is knowing where…