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Family & Youth Forum |
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February What's Inside
Partnerships for Hope and Service
Mission Past Issues
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Some areas of major changes in reporting requirements from the 2007 Form 990 include a new governance section and substantial revisions to the reporting of the organization’s compensation of officers, directors, trustees, key employees, and highest compensated employees. For example, Part VI, Governance, Management, and Disclosure, is a new section that asks questions about the organization’s governance structure, policies and practices. The IRS considers such policies and practices for which information is sought generally to improve tax compliance. Part VII, Compensation of Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, Highest Compensated Employees, and Independent Contractors, also contains important changes, including new definitions of officer and key employee applicable to all organizations, and the extension of reporting compensation paid to the top five highest compensated employees and top five independent contractors from organizations described in section 501(c)(3) or 4947(a)(1), as was previously the case, to all organizations filing the Form 990, such as social welfare organizations, business leagues, trade associations, and social clubs. Other areas of significant change include determination of public charity status and public support; supplemental financial statement reporting; and fundraising.
The 2008 Form 990 contains 16 schedules to be completed by those organizations that satisfy the requirements applicable to a particular schedule. These schedules replace the prior form’s schedules and attachments that previously had to be prepared and formatted by the filing organization. Schedules B and E request information unchanged from 2007. The 2007 Schedule A was substantially revised and separated into various parts that are now contained in Schedules A, C, E, and R. Schedules C, G, I, L, and N generally require information required by the 2007 form in unstructured attachments. Schedules D, F, H, J, K, M, O, and R are mostly or entirely new. Many of the schedules or parts of schedules contain reporting exceptions or thresholds which may apply to exempt an organization from having to complete that schedule or part of a schedule. Organizations should complete Part IV, Checklist of Required Schedules, to determine which of these schedules they must file as part of the Form 990.
Form 990-EZ Filing Requirements for 2008-2010. Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, may be filed by most organizations with gross receipts and total assets below certain amounts. For the 2008 tax year, most organizations with gross receipts less than $1,000,000 and total assets less than $2,500,000 may choose to file the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ. (For the 2007 tax year, these amounts were less than $100,000 gross receipts and $250,000 total assets.) Similarly, most organizations with gross receipts less than $500,000 and total assets less than $1,250,000 may choose to file the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ for the 2009 tax year. Beginning with the 2010 tax year, most organizations with gross receipts less than $200,000 and total assets less than $500,000 may file either the Form 990 or Form 990-EZ.
Although Form 990-EZ was not redesigned for 2008, some changes have been made so that certain information previously required to be submitted as attachments will now be reported on schedules. Organizations that file Form 990-EZ (2008) must review the instructions for Schedules A, B, C, E, G, L, and N to determine whether they must report any of their activities or information on those schedules.
New annual electronic filing requirement for small tax-exempt organizations. Most small tax-exempt organizations (those normally with annual gross receipts up to $25,000) now must file new Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard) for Tax-Exempt Organizations Not Required to File Form 990 or 990-EZ. See the IRS website at www.irs.gov and click on the Charities & Non-Profits tab for more information. |