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Hi-Lights of the New Form 990
By Rosalie W. Miller, CPA
Parent, McLaughlin & Nangle
You probably know by now that in December 2007 the IRS released a final draft of a completely revised Form 990. The new form is to be filed for the 2008 tax year, with some smaller organizations allowed to defer filing to later years if they meet certain requirements.
The new form discloses much more information about your organization, particularly in the following areas:
- Information on IRS Filings and Tax Compliance
- The Governing Body and Management
- The Organization's Policies
- Financial Statements and Reporting
- Reporting of Compensation
Regardless of your organization's fiscal year end, you will need to gather and disclose some items for the year ended December 31. For instance, you will need to report certain information from Form 1096 (Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns), and Form W-3 (Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements) filed for the calendar year. There is also a question asking whether the organization has filed all required federal employment tax forms.
On the Governance side, there are new questions regarding the independence of your organization's governing board, and disclosure of whether minutes were taken at meetings of the governing board and committees. In addition, the form asks if the governing body was provided with a copy of the Form 990 prior to its filing, and if so, what the review process was.
If you haven't already, now is the time to get your organization's policies in order. The form will disclose whether or not your organization has the following written policies:
- Conflict of Interest (including questions regarding how conflicts are disclosed, and the monitoring and enforcement of the policy)
- Whistleblower
- Document Retention and Destruction
Finally, the process for determining compensation for top management of the organization must be disclosed.
This is just a hi-light of some of the many changes to the form. For more information on how the new Form 990 changes will affect your not-for-profit organization, you should consider attending a free upcoming seminar on Wednesday July 23, 2008 8:30am - 11:30am. For more details, please visit our website by clicking here or email Lisa Lyons at llyons@pmn.com to register.
Stay tuned for our next newsletter which will give you even more insight into the changes.
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