New 990 Resources and Links

Thanks to all the people who have come to our recent, "New 990" workshops. Below are a list of questions from them and resources I said I would post. If I miss any or you have other questions please feel free to put them in the comments below.

• Form 8734 - the end of advance ruling form is no longer required for groups who's advance ruling periods expire on or after June 8th 2008. Click here for the details.
• The IRS's recent 990 webinar is still available on line for folks who want to know more.
• Here is a link to SOP 98 2 issues regarding joint costs (costs that have BOTH a fundraising component and a program component. be careful with these, they can get you into trouble if you do not know the rules and the IRS is looking closer at this stuff.
• Here is the complete list of new 990 forms, instructions and schedules including J which list all the types of reportable compensation
• Other websites I referred to:
  www.stayexempt.org - helpful IRS resource
  www.guidestar.org - where our 990's reside
  hrcalifornia - labor and employment issues
• There was a question on schedule G part II. the text reads, "Events. (Complete this part if the organization reported more than $15,000 on Form 990, Part VIII, line 8a or
  Form 990-EZ, line 6a. List events with gross receipts greater than $5,000.)" The questioner asked why the 990 amount was $15,000.00 and the 990-EZ amount is $5,000.00. I had no idea until I looked at it now and realized there is a period that separates the two sentences. The $15,000.00 amount is for both the 990 and 990-EZ.
• Another question was asked about question 6 of part I of the core form, why does the IRS need to know the number of volunteers a nonprofit utilizes? I'm not really sure, maybe someone out there knows? Here is the text from the form 990 instructions:
  

  Line 6. Number of volunteers. Provide the number of volunteers, full-time and part-time, who provided volunteer services to the organization during the reporting year. Organizations that do not keep track of this information in their books and records or report this information elsewhere (such as in annual reports or grant proposals) may provide a reasonable estimate, and may use any reasonable basis for determining this estimate. Organizations may, but are not required to, provide an explanation in Schedule O of how this number was determined, and the types of services or benefits provided by the organization’s volunteers.

If I missed any question please let me know.

SOP 98-2

I've posted on this before, but here is a *bump* for the topic as I've had some questions on it lately.

SOP 98-2 covers joint costs, costs that have both a fundraising component and a program component. An example would be sending out an informational mailer about a nonprofit’s program and also including a request for a donation. Is that mailing a program expense or is it fundraising? Some of each?

This article covers how to allocate that expense and the three criteria you have to meet in order to have any of the costs considered program costs. Don’t meet the criteria? It is all fundraising.

Alan

Joint Costs - SOP 98-2

Per the workshops at CAN's annual conference, here is the link to the info on joint costs. What are joint costs you ask? When you send out something that is both educational AND a solicitation for funds you run the risk of having the total cost of the activity listed as fundraising and not program unless you meet certain criteria. The above article will help guide you through the process. The link is also here: http://www.aicpa.org/PUBS/JOFA/aug98/capin.htm

Alan