Keeping Records

This video shows you what you need to do to make sure your charitable contributions pass muster with the IRS. The Wall Street Journal's Tom Herman tells you how new tax laws make detailed record keeping absolutely essential.

Click here to view the video.

Rules for Giving

The 4/21/2008 Wall Street Journal explores how U.S. tax laws have changed in recent years in regard to charitable donations. The article touches on key points such keeping good records, advice on stock donations, and what's in store for the future of IRA gifts, as well as other key "what you need to know" items.

Click here to read the article.

IRS Sets New Filing Thresholds For Form 990

Mark Hrywna, from the NonProfit Times, reports that the IRS will phase in a new filing threshold that will permit nonprofits with gross receipts between $25,000 and $1 million, and total assets below $2.5 million, to file a revised Form 990 EZ in 2008.

"By 2010, nonprofits with gross receipts between $50,000 and $200,000 in gross receipts, and less than $500,000 in total assets, will be permitted to file a Form 990 EZ."

Read more of this 01.09.08 article from The NonProfit Times.

IRS To Keep Eye On Exec Compensation

The NonProfit Times reports that executive compensation compliance will continue to be in the crosshairs in 2008 for the Internal Revenue Service's Exempt Organization Division (IRS-EO) after compliance checks this year turned up significant errors and omissions.

Read more.

Update on IRA Charitable Rollover

Late last week, the Senate decided to drop extensions of expiring tax provisions (also known as "extenders") from an alternative minimum tax bill (AMT). That likely means that the IRA charitable rollover will not be extended prior to Dec. 31, 2007. Leaders in both chambers have said that they would like to pass the extenders in early 2008, but the timing is uncertain.

Latest News from Capitol Hill...

Senate Passes AMT Patch Without IRA Charitable Rollover, UBIT Provision
On Thursday, Dec. 6, Senate leaders decided to split an alternative minimum tax (AMT)/tax extenders package, leading to Senate passage of a one-year AMT patch bill that does not include an extension of the current law IRA charitable rollover nor a provision changing the tax treatment of tax-exempt hedge fund investments. The AMT patch bill was passed on a vote of 88-5. Senate leaders expressed hope that the tax extenders could be approved at a later date, most likely in 2008.

Read more about this on the CASE website.

IRS Moves to Weed Out Deadwood Charities

Donors should get a much clearer picture of how secular charities handle their money, and which charities are legitimate, due to new rules imposed by Congress. Now, even the tiniest nonprofit, like garden clubs with a few hundred dollars of income a year, must file simple disclosure statements online with the IRS.

Under the new law, the Pension Protection Act of 2006, any nonprofit (except virtually all religious organizations) that fails to file within three years will automatically lose its tax exemption, said Lois G. Lerner, the IRS's director of exempt organizations.

Read more of this 11.12.07 New York Times article by David Cay Johnston.

To Tax or Not to Tax Nonprofits? Cities Ask the Billion-Dollar Question

Despite a long tradition of waiving taxes for charitable nonprofit groups, communities are feeling more pressure to eliminate property-tax exemptions. As communities struggle over diminishing revenue, whispers to eliminate tax breaks have grown louder...

Read more of this 11.12.07 article from the New York Times by Terry Schwadron.

Concerns may foil a tax break eyed by donor-advised funds

"A movement to include donor-advised funds in charitable IRA rollovers may stall due to concerns at the IRS and among members of Congress.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, which is working on a report about the funds for Congress, it has seen problems at some smaller organizations that are using donor-advised funds as tax loopholes. The IRS said it hasn't seen that problem at the large financial institutions that sponsor the funds, however."

Read more of this 11.06.07 article by Sara Hansard from Investment News.

The Triumph Of "Trickle Up" Economics

The Internal Revenue Service recently released its report on 2005 individual income taxes. The headline is that the super-rich were even more rich than in any year since the IRS first had comparable data in 1986.

Read this CBS News October 18, 2007 story. Read the summary of latest federal individual income tax data.