Protecting Nonprofit Rights

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

IRS Initiates Pay, Reporting Enforcement Effort

As part of a stepped-up enforcement effort, the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations division (EO) is sending letters to approximately 2,000 charities asking them to detail their method of determining executive compensation. EO Director Martha Sullivan estimates 25 percent of organizations receiving the letter will be examined further. In a related issue, the IRS is contacting charities that have not answered question 89B of Tax Form 990. Question 89B deals with excess benefit transactions, and is considering the use of penalties up to $50,000.

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FEC Schedules New Rulemaking in 2005

Beginning in January 2005 the Federal Election Commission (FEC) will begin an intense seven-month series of proceedings to amend rules implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) rejected by a federal court this fall, and take up new issues generated by this year's election. Among those with greatest impact on nonprofits will be expansion of regulation into Internet communications, reconsideration of the electioneering communications exemption for 501(c)(3) groups and party donations to nonprofits. At its Nov. 18 meeting the FEC approved a

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Great analysis of Chairman Bond's speech at NAACP dinner

Nov 23, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Washington Post has a great article analyzing whether Chairman Bond's speech at the NAACP dinner violated the IRS nonprofit electioneering provision. Under IRS rules, nonprofits cannot advocate either way regarding the election of a candidate. To put it simply, the NAACP could not say, "vote for John Kerry". Because nonprofits are tax-exempt, they should not use tax-deductible (i.e. government subsidized) donations behalf of one candidate or another.

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IRS explains current developments concerning charities

Nov 22, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The following article details a November 18th discussion on terrorism and grantmaking at the Western Conference on Tax Exempt Organizations, where officials from the IRS discussed current and future regulations of nonprofits.

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Ashcroft and his replacement

Nov 22, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Outgoing Atty General John Ashcroft has been actively decimating the civil liberties of nonprofits and individuals, but has little success to show for the efforts. It is hard to imagine that his successor, Bush crony Alberto Gonzales, will be any different. Read this Salon article for the full scoop.

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Muslims in a quandry over giving

Nov 19, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Read this article about the effects the Treasury Department's crackdown on Muslim charities is having on giving during Ramadan.

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Former IRS'er Contemplates Audit of NAACP

Nov 18, 2004 by Guest Blogger

A former IRS worker wonders about the political motivations and consequences of the Internal Revenue Service investigation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

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Votelaw.com highlights OMB Watch article

Nov 16, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Ed Still's informative election reform website posted an OMB Watch article about how nonprofits came out in force this election season.

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New York Times Roundtable on Accountability

Nov 16, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Today, the New York Times had an interesting roundtable discussion about financial problems in the nonprofit sector and whether there is a need for further government regulation. The overall sense of the article seems to be that nonprofits, while most of them abide by the law, need to be have further regulation by the government if they are to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public. You can go to the New York Times site for the article or click below.

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How States are Spending HAVA money

Nov 16, 2004 by Guest Blogger

This year, for the first time in our nation's history, states received federal dollars to help pay for federally-mandated election reforms. NASS asked the states how they are spending that money, and what they will do if they don't receive all of the money Congress authorized when it passed The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

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