| Six Killed in Attack on World Vision in Pakistan |
| Suspected militants armed with assault rifles and a homemade bomb attacked the offices of a U.S.-based Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six Pakistani employees, police and the organization said. |
| Source: AP |
| Date: 03-08-2010 |
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| Grassley Says Educational Endowment Losses No Excuse for Tuition Hikes, Aid Freezes |
| Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) stated that the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers latest survey on higher education endowments, showing steep declines in their rates of return, is not excuse for institutions to raise tuition or freeze student aid. |
| Source: Non-Profit Legal & Tax Letter, February 22, 2010 |
| Date: 03-08-2010 |
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| States Looking to Nonprofit Sector to Balance Budgets |
| As more states are confronting increasing deficits and decreasing revenues, many have begun to look to the nonprofit sector to balance their budgets, according to an article this week in The New York Times. |
| Source: American Soc of Asn Executives Public Policy Dept |
| Date: 03-08-2010 |
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| Senate Works Toward Passing Extenders Package |
| After halting debate for several days to consider short-term extensions of unemployment benefits and COBRA eligibility, the Senate has returned to debating a larger package of tax extenders that represent the second phase of the leadership’s jobs agenda. |
| Source: American Soc of Asn Executives Public Policy Dept |
| Date: 03-08-2010 |
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| How to Adapt Estate Plans to Uncertainty in 2010 |
| As of Jan. 1, the federal estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes are no more. Unless Congress reinstates them sooner, they will remain repealed until Jan. 1, 2011, when they are scheduled to kick in once again-at lower exemption levels than in 2009. While lawmakers have discussed bringing the estate tax back -- and potentially making it retroactive to the beginning of the year, many questions remain. Against this backdrop, tax and estate advisers have to consider what to recommend to their clients. |
| Source: NAMB Periodic Nonprofit Tax/Fin Update 03.3.10 |
| Date: 03-03-2010 |
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| 2009 Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations |
| With significant government and watchdog oversight and the demands of various constituencies for transparency, your organization's governance has never been more important. |
| Source: NAMB Periodic Nonprofit Tax/Fin Update 03.3.10 |
| Date: 03-03-2010 |
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| Churches Warned to Prepare for Another Lean Year |
| Churches and nonprofits should prepare for another lean year as Americans continue to grip their wallets, a researcher cautioned. "Barring a significant event or shift, the prospects for a recovery of charitable giving during 2010 appear dim," said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group. "Even while some financial indicators show signs of life, most Americans are very concerned about the country’s long-term economic prospects and seem to be tightening budgets and scrimping on donations." A new survey released Monday by the Barna Group shows that more Americans have cut back on their giving to nonprofits and churches. |
| Source: The Christian Post |
| Date: 03-03-2010 |
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| Charity Disaster |
| A storm is brewing over claims made by a New York-based charity to provide aid—that never materialized—to victims of Hurricane Katrina. The New York Post reports that a charity formed by Congressman Gregory Meeks, a Queens-NY Democrat, and a New York State senator, raised $31,000 in donations. But according to its own filings, it only disbursed $1,392. |
| Source: The Nonprofit Quarterly, February 23, 2010 |
| Date: 02-25-2010 |
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| Fundraising Faux Pas: Charities Fail to Respond to New Donors |
| In her second annual experiment to track national charities' reactions to unsolicited donations, communications consultant Kivi Leroux Miller once again finds "a pitiful response." |
| Source: Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 23, 2010 |
| Date: 02-25-2010 |
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| Should Religious Symbols Have to Be Stripped From Walls? |
| The President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships voted strongly not to require that all religious symbols, religious art, and other religious messages be stripped away or hidden in rooms where federally funded services are delivered. |
| Source: Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, 2/22/10 |
| Date: 02-23-2010 |
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| Outlook for Charitable Giving Incentives Not Clear, Congressional Aides Say |
| The fate of a number of charitable giving tax incentives that have expired remains unclear, though there is talk of renewing them and even expanding the scope of the IRA charitable distribution provision, according to congressional staff members who work on tax policy. |
| Source: EO Tax Today, February 19, 2010 |
| Date: 02-23-2010 |
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| ECFA and Other Charities Send Letter to Senate Banking Committee |
| The letter was sent to the Senate Banking Committee because ECFA believe that Congress did not intend to cover activities such as food banks for seeking donations, schools for teaching our children how to save, missions and shelters for offering the homeless a way to find self-sufficiency, or churches for providing budget balancing workshops in low-income communities. The letter encourages that the final bill should be modified to clearly reflect this intent and ensure that the CFPA will not subject the nonprofit community to another layer of regulation, fees and increased paper work – at a time when they can least afford it. |
| Source: ECFA |
| Date: 02-23-2010 |
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| Potential Adverse Effect on Charitable Programs |
| ECFA’s president, Dan Busby, is quoted in Christianity Today concerning the effect the Consumer Financial Protection Agency could have on churches and charities. The Agency would be given very broad authority to issue rules to promote “fairness,” and being required to pay fees to support the Agency’s budget. |
| Source: Christianity Today, February 9, 2010 |
| Date: 02-15-2010 |
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| Departing Wealth Hurts NJ Charities |
| Study shows that wealth began to leave New Jersey around the time when a series of changes to the state’s tax structure made it less competitive for charitable families compared to neighboring states. |
| Source: NJToday.net |
| Date: 02-09-2010 |
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| CLS Files Brief for Petitioner in the Supreme Court |
| In a historic first for the Christian Legal Society, attorneys for the Center for Law & Religious Freedom filed the Brief for Petitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. |
| Source: CLS |
| Date: 02-01-2010 |
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| Grassley Considers Minimum Pay-Out Requirement for Exempt Organizations |
| Grassley Considers Minimum Pay-Out Requirement for Exempt Organizations. A minimum asset pay-out requirement for tax-exempt organizations such as universities would help provide an incentive for such organizations to better live up to their responsibilities and justify their exempt status, Senate Finance Committee ranking minority member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a January 27 statement. |
| Source: EO Tax Today |
| Date: 02-01-2010 |
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| Legislation Would Temporarily Wave Tax Limits on Tax Deductions on Donations Designated for Haiti Relief |
| Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) joined Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) in announcing their intent to introduce legislation that would allow individuals who make charitable contributions to victims of the earthquake in Haiti to claim an itemized charitable deduction on their 2009 tax return (instead of having to wait until next year to claim these deductions on their 2010 tax return). Please click here to view text of the legislation. |
| Source: EO Today, January 19, 2010 |
| Date: 01-20-2010 |
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| IRS Suspends updates on Business Cell Phone Rules |
| IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said last week that the Service is suspending any update of rules for taxing employer-provided cell phones and other mobile devices, and expects Congress to act soon to change the antiquated law. |
| Source: ASAE Public Policy, January 14, 2010 |
| Date: 01-19-2010 |
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| FBI Alerts Donors to Scam Risk |
| As American donations began flooding into Haiti on Wednesday, the FBI and charity watchdogs warned potential donors to be cautious about where they send their money. |
| Source: Washington Post |
| Date: 01-19-2010 |
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| Consumer Financial Protection Agency |
| In 2009, Congress introduced legislation that would create a new government agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). |
| Source: ECFA |
| Date: 01-12-2010 |
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| Educational Endowments Take A Beating, Down 19% (7-1-08 to 6-30-09) |
| Preliminary data gathered from colleges and universities participating in the 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments show endowments and affiliated foundations had an average investment return of -19 percent (net of fees) for the 2009 fiscal year July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. The preliminary 10-year average net return is just 4.2 percent. |
| Source: Nonprofit Times |
| Date: 01-12-2010 |
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| Harvard University Audited as Part of IRS Probe of Nonprofits |
| Harvard University is one of 40 colleges that will be audited this year as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s review of the tax-exempt status of some nonprofit organizations, the school said in bond offering documents. |
| Source: Bloomberg |
| Date: 01-12-2010 |
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| Proposal Would Have Taxed Nonprofit Orgnaizations |
A proposal in a bill to tax nonprofit organizations based on the number of employees working in Camden, NJ died last week as quickly as snow on a hot plate.
This story comes from New Jersey where a proposal to tax nonprofits $100 for each employee was recently withdrawn—though it does not sound like it is completely dead. Again, much of the activity to tax nonprofits seems to be focused around areas that have large nonprofit institutions occupying large tracts of land but the effects of a proposal like this one would have been more size neutral. |
| Source: Nonprofit Quarterly, January 11, 2010 |
| Date: 01-11-2010 |
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| Costliest Year-end Mistake with Form W-2s |
| You have an equal chance of submitting a W-2 with a name/Social Security Number (SSN) mismatch as getting one of those soda bottle game tops marked “winner.” |
| Source: Keep Up To Date on Payroll |
| Date: 01-09-2010 |
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| Minister Employed by University May Be Eligible for Housing Allowance |
| In a partially redacted emailed advice, the IRS advised that a minister under IRS audit may be eligible to take a section 107 housing allowance deduction but that more information is needed to determine whether the minister’s employer meets the definition of an integral agency. |
| Source: EO Tax Today, January 4, 2010 |
| Date: 01-04-2010 |
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| Congress Left Behind a Big Tax Mess |
| Many key issues remain unresolved for now as the members of Congress have gone home for a long holiday. |
| Source: Kiplinger Tax Letter |
| Date: 12-28-2009 |
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| Are We Really That Generous? |
During the Christmas season, no one wants to be called a Scrooge. But the current recession is exposing our miserly streak.
Wes Willmer, ECFA’s Senior Vice President, says: “As people of faith face Christmas and the New Year to follow, we are in a position to make a dramatic difference in charitable giving and to help fulfill the Great commission. Let’s put generosity at the top of our list of resolutions for 2010. Scrooge didn’t remain a miser and, by God’s grace, neither should we.” |
| Source: Charisma Magazine, December 18, 2009 |
| Date: 12-21-2009 |
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| The Top 7 Resources to Combat Church Embezzlement |
| Incidents of embezzlement continue to spring up. Your Church has compiled the top seven resources church leaders should use to prevent embezzlement opportunities and combat individuals who might attempt to steal. |
| Source: Your Church, December 16, 2009 |
| Date: 12-18-2009 |
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| Effort to Extend Estate Tax Fails |
The federal estate tax will likely expire as scheduled January 1, creating dilemmas for politicians of both parties and roiling tax planning for thousands of Americans.
Under 2001 tax legislation, the federal estate tax is set to disappear in 2010. If Congress does nothing, it pops back into effect in 2011, at the Clinton-era top rate of 55%, with a $1 million exclusion. Currently the top rate is 45%, which a $3.5 million exclusion. |
| Source: Wall Street Journal |
| Date: 12-18-2009 |
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| December 31 is a Big Day for Online Charity |
New data from Convio, a software company, shows that charitable donors that use Convio’s online giving systems made 13.2 times more gifts last Dec. 31 than the daily average for the rest of 2008, and that the charities raised 22.5 times more money than they did on an average day.
Convio, which estimates that as much as 10 percent of online giving moves over its systems, also found that in the last week of 2008, the average gift size was 57 percent larger than the weekly average for the rest of the year. |
| Source: NY Times |
| Date: 12-18-2009 |
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| Charitable Contributions Made Near Year-end |
We are coming up on the end of 2009 and calendar year-end is a time to be sure you understand the rules concerning whether certain gifts are deductible in 2009 or 2010.
Checks mailed to a charity must be dated and postmarked in 2009 to be deductible in 2009. A check dated in 2010 is a 2010 contribution even if it is mailed and postmarked in 2009. Gifts made by credit card must be processed by your credit card company by midnight on December 31, 2009.
Special rules apply to gifts of securities, real estate, and more. |
| Source: ECFA |
| Date: 12-18-2009 |
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| Tax Extenders Bill Passes House |
| H.R. 4213, the “Tax Extenders Act of 2009,” as passed by the House of Representatives on December 9, would extend a host of expiring tax provisions and adopt new provisions to offset the cost of the extenders. |
| Source: RIA Federal Taxes Weekly Alert |
| Date: 12-18-2009 |
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| IRS Releases Governance Check Sheet |
| The IRS has released a check sheet that will be used by agents during examinations of exempt organizations to gather information on the governance practices and internal controls of organizations. |
| Source: Steptoe & Johnson |
| Date: 12-14-2009 |
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| IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates |
| The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2010 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. |
| Source: Internal Revenue Service, IR-2009-111 |
| Date: 12-07-2009 |
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| Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks |
| The number of organizations that can offer their donors a tax break in the name of charity has grown more than 60 percent in the United States, to 1.1 million, in just a decade. |
| Source: New York Times |
| Date: 12-05-2009 |
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| Manhattan Declaration |
| The Manhattan Declaration is a renewed rallying cry to those who are engaged in spiritual and cultural conversion. |
| Source: ManhattanDeclaration.org |
| Date: 11-26-2009 |
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| IRS Says It Is OK to Truncate Social Security Numbers on Paper Payee Statements |
| The IRS has just announced that it has created a pilot program allowing filers of information returns to truncate an individual payee’s nine-digit identifying number on paper payee statements for calendar years 2009 and 2010 if the filer meets certain requirements. This notice does not apply to any information return filed with the IRS, any payee statement furnished electronically, or any payee statement not in the Form 1098, 1099, or 5498 series. |
| Source: Internal Revenue Service Notice 2009-93 |
| Date: 11-26-2009 |
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| Faith-Based Program Still Popular—Less Visible |
| A new Pew Research Report finds that more than eight years after former President George W. Bush unveiled his faith-based initiative, the policy continues to draw broad public support. |
| Source: Religion News Service |
| Date: 11-25-2009 |
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| Stealth Preemption: The IRS's Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative |
| In his article, "Stealth Preemption: The I.R.S.'s Nonprofit Corporate Governance Initiative," James Fishman argues the corporate governance initiative is inefficient from a cost/benefit basis, and diverts nonprofit organizations from their charitable mission. |
| Source: Nonprofit Law Prof Blog |
| Date: 11-24-2009 |
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| IRS Discusses Tax Consequences of a Refund to a Donor |
| In a recent letter, the IRS discusses the tax consequences to a donor who receives a repayment of a charitable gift that he or she made in an earlier taxable year plus interest on the repayment. |
| Source: Letter from the IRS to Rep. Kay Granger on August |
| Date: 11-24-2009 |
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| Congressional Research Service Releases Report on the “Costs” of Charitable Giving |
| The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has released a report that, among other things, attempts to discuss the "costs" of charitable giving and includes consideration of policies like capping the itemized deduction for donations and switching the deduction to a tax credit. The report concludes that "if tax subsidies do not induce additional charitable giving, the subsidy provides a windfall to the taxpayer (without providing additional funding to charitable organizations)" and "recent evidence on price elasticities suggests that charitable contribution deductions are not very efficient, in that the government spends more than a dollar to induce a dollar of contributions." |
| Source: Congressional Research Service |
| Date: 11-20-2009 |
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| Regulatory Reform Would Impact Nonprofits and Churches |
| H.R. 3126 is alleged to “fix” some of the problems that created last year’s financial meltdown. The bill’s definition of “financial activity” is so broad that it would impact nonprofits and churches. Because of this concern, ECFA sent a letter to Rep. Barney Frank, who sponsored the legislation, asking the nonprofits and churches be excluded from the bill. |
| Source: ECFA |
| Date: 11-19-2009 |
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| Grassley Voices Concern Over College Presidents' Salaries |
| Sen. Chuck Grassley today expressed concern that private college presidents' salaries continue to go up even as tuition increases for students, according to a new survey from The Chronicle on Higher Education. |
| Source: Tax Analysts |
| Date: 11-09-2009 |
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| Universities Urge Repeal of Cellphone Record-Keeping Requirements |
| In an October 2 letter to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, almost 50 universities said rules requiring record-keeping for cellphone usage place an "onerous burden" on higher education institutions and businesses, and they urged passage of the MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009 (H.R. 690; S. 144) to repeal the rules. |
| Source: Tax Analysts |
| Date: 10-26-2009 |
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| Foundation Files Complaint Challenging Constitutionality of Tax Benefits for Ministers |
| The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint in a U.S. district court seeking a declaration that sections 107 and 265(a)(6) violate the Establishment Clause and First Amendment of the Constitution by providing preferential tax benefits to ministers of the gospel and has asked the court to enjoin the IRS from allowing such benefits. |
| Source: Tax Analysts |
| Date: 10-26-2009 |
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| IRS Video Series on Form 990 |
| The IRS has developed “The New Form 990: Getting Started” a case study with video program. |
| Source: IRS |
| Date: 10-22-2009 |
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| New Jersey AG Claims to Find Tony Soprano’s Nonprofit Board |
| New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram recently sued the trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology (Stevens Institute) and several of its officers, accusing the nonprofit, in what appears to be a reprise of the Allegheny Health, Education, and Research Foundation (AHERF) story, of misusing donor money and excessively compensating its president. |
| Source: Baker & Hostetler LLP, Robert M. Wolin |
| Date: 10-13-2009 |
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| Attack on RFRA Protections for Religious Hiring |
| Some sixty religious, civil rights, gay rights, feminist, and secularist organizations have demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder review and then reject a 2009 legal memorandum from the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel concerning religious hiring by faith-based federal grantees. |
| Source: Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance |
| Date: 09-21-2009 |
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| Baucus Healthcare Plan Would Fund Abortion |
| On Sept. 16, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced a detailed summary of his “America’s Health Future Act of 2009” that will be marked-up in the Senate Financial Services Committee. |
| Source: EP News |
| Date: 09-21-2009 |
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