According to a Live Discussion hosted by the Chronicle on Philanthropy, "Now that charities are required to fill out a new version of the Form 990 -- the informational tax return that organizations file each year with the Internal Revenue Service -- some organizations are beginning to get a better understanding of its new requirements. Yet too many charity trustees have not grasped that the new 990 makes substantial new demands on them, experts say."  MORE »

When New York real estate magnate Leona Helmsley died in 2007, she made it clear the majority of her estimated $5 billion estate was to be used for the care and support of dogs via the Helmsley Foundation. However, a New York Surrogate’s Court judge has ruled the foundation's trustees have sole discretion with respect to the destination of its grants. Should the foundation now honor Helmsely's wishes or make grants for purposes it deems appropriate?
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The IRS has stated informally that Form 5227 for the 2006 tax year will not be released until the first week of February at the earliest. Trustees may desire to notify trust income beneficiaries of the delay.  MORE »

As some of the popular news programs report, it's only 1,430 days until the next presidential election! With that in mind, in this special report from Tax Analysts, Alan L. Kennard of the St. Louis office of Husch & Eppenberger LLC reviews the rules in the tax code governing political activity by public charities.  MORE »

A charity serving as trustee provides the opportunity to enhance donor relations, but exposes the charity to liability. Gift planners need to consider how to maximize the former while minimizing the latter. This presentation begins with a detailed examination of the factors that should be considered when deciding whether a charitable organization should serve as trustee of charitable trusts, and includes a discussion of various alternatives such as corporate trustees, co-trusteeship and the use of non-trustee administrators.  MORE »

This review of NCPG’s Valuation Standards for Charitable Planned Gifts emphasizes practical application, including how to incorporate the standards into internal software and systems. Presenters are members of the task force that drafted the standards.  MORE »

The danger of self-dealing lurks in every CRT, CLT, PIF, and private foundation. This session will use real-life examples to discuss some of the easily identifiable self-dealing pitfalls, describe some transactions that become self-dealing upon seemingly innocuous actions such as when there is a change of trustee or when someone in the donor’s family marries, and close with a review of the steps needed to correct an act of self-dealing as well as several examples of self-dealing safe-harbors.  MORE »

The American Competitiveness and Corporate Accountability Act of 2002, commonly known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, was signed into law in response to the corporate and accounting scandals of Enron, Arthur Andersen, and others. The law's purpose is to rebuild public trust in America's corporate sector by requiring publicly traded companies to adhere to significant new governance standards that increase board members' roles in overseeing financial transactions and auditing procedures. This article, by BoardSource and INDEPENDENT SECTOR, discusses the current and potential applications of Sarbanes-Oxley to nonprofit organizations.  MORE »

This session will examine the impact of the “Philanthropy Protection Act of 1995” and other securities laws on charitable gift planning and how the disclosure requirements mandated by securities laws can be effectively incorporated into the planned gift marketing and communication process. (Syllabus Code 5.00)  MORE »

At an April 25 conference, former IRS Exempt Organizations Director Marcus Owens and the IRS's Lawrence Brauer discussed how the IRS is using intermediate sanctions under section 4958 to combat excess benefit transactions involving tax-exempt organizations. The discussion highlights TAM 200243057, in which a car donation organization was hit with multiple penalties for willful and flagrant actions.  MORE »