The Tax-Exempt and Government Entities section of the IRS recently released its 2011 annual report and 2012 work plan.  The report provides that the IRS performed traditional examinations on 11,699 returns from tax-exempt organizations.  The IRS performed compliance checks on 3,194 returns from tax-exempt organizations.  A few highlights from the IRS’s 2012 work plan include:  [...]

As you may remember from our prior blog post, the Tax Court held that Driscoll, an ordained minister, was allowed to apply the section 107 minister housing allowance income exclusion to multiple houses.  The government appealed the Tax Court’s decision (see here for our prior blog) to the 11th Circuit of Appeals.  Yesterday, a three-judge [...]

A recent article from the Nonprofit Times (www.thenonprofittimes.com) reminds nonprofit organizations that although the IRS has not caught up to all of the unrelated business income issues on the world wide web, it’s probably only a matter of time before they do. Keep in mind that unrelated business income is any trade or business the [...]

A new station in Indianapolis, Fox 59, has recently released a story regarding the upcoming Super Bowl and whether state and federal tax will be collected as a result of the various revenue raisers during the weekend. The NFL is a nonprofit association, so it will enjoy tax-free status on its sales and purchases while [...]

In 2005, Garth Brooks donated $500,000 to the local hospital in Oklahoma with an oral agreement between him and the President that such funds would be used to build a women’s health center that would be named in honor of Brook’s mother.  Eventually Brooks learned that the funds would be used for other construction projects for the hospital.  [...]

In an earlier blog we told you about Catholic Answers, Inc. and their court battle with the IRS regarding an excise tax that was imposed on the organization for political expenditures.  The IRS originally imposed the excise tax in response to letters the organization published online criticizing Sen. John F. Kerry, who was at that [...]

A recent notice published by the IRS is especially important for those tax-exempt organizations seeking to end human trafficking to take note of regarding the victims of human trafficking.  In 2000, Congress passed the “Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000” (the “Act”) which was enacted to combat the trafficking of persons who are forced through [...]

The New York Times recently reported the highlights of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget and reform plan.  Part of Cuomo’s plan is to improve the monitoring and spending controls of nonprofit organization who provide services for the state of New York.  The governor plans to limit the annual state reimbursement for executive salaries at state-subsidized nonprofit [...]

The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (“LECOM”) owns a new coffee shop, a portion of which is open to the public and the remaining space is a study center exclusively for the students of LECOM.  The Erie County Assessor has “accounted for the building’s dual nature” and has split the coffee shop for tax [...]

It appears that the widely known tax-exempt organization AARP is still being looked at by members of Congress.  In a recent letter to Douglas Shulman, the IRS Commissioner, the relationship between HearUSA, Inc. (a hearing aid company) and AARP was questioned by Dave Reichert (member of Congress), Wally Herger (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health), [...]