 State law typically specifies the minimum number of directors a not-for-profit must have on its board. But so long as organizations fulfill that requirement, it’s up to them to determine how many total board members they need. Several guidelines can help you arrive at the right number.
Small vs. large Both small and large boards come with perks and drawbacks. For example, smaller boards allow for easier communication and greater cohesiveness among the members. Scheduling is less complicated, and meetings tend to be shorter and more focused. Several studies have indicated that group decision making is most effective when the group size is five to eight people. But boards on the small side of this range may lack the experience or diversity necessary to facilitate healthy deliberation and debate. What’s more, members may feel overworked and burn out easily. Burnout is less likely with a large board where each member shoulders a smaller burden, including when it comes to fundraising. Large boards may include more perspectives and a broader base of professional expertise — for example, financial advisors, community leaders and former clients. On the other hand, larger boards can lead to disengagement because the members may not feel they have sufficient responsibilities or a voice in discussions and decisions. Larger boards also require more staff support. What you should weigh If you’re assembling a board or thinking about resizing, consider:
Downsizing harder than upsizing If you decide a larger board is in order, recruit new members. Trimming your board is a trickier proposition. For starters, you might need to change your bylaws. Generally, it’s best to set a range for board size in the bylaws, rather than a precise number. Your bylaws already might call for staggered terms, which makes paring down simpler. As terms end, don’t replace members. Or establish an automatic removal process in which members are removed for missing a specified number of meetings. An engaging experience To successfully recruit and retain committed board members, you need to offer an engaging experience. Maintaining an appropriately sized board that makes the most of their talents is the first step. © 2019  Here are some of the key tax-related deadlines affecting businesses and other employers during the first quarter of 2020. Keep in mind that this list isn’t all-inclusive, so there may be additional deadlines that apply to you. Contact us to ensure you’re meeting all applicable deadlines and to learn more about the filing requirements.
January 31
 According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 47% of companies offer a community volunteer program for employees. Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose has found that large companies are even more likely to sponsor volunteer activities: 61% offer paid-release time volunteer programs or a structured corporate volunteer program.
If your not-for-profit suffers from a chronic volunteer shortage or has had to put off large projects for lack of helping hands, such corporate volunteer partnerships can be a boon. Teaming up with a well-known company can also raise your nonprofit’s profile with potential donors and the media. And employees who participate may decide to become permanent volunteers or financial supporters. Finding a match The best volunteer partnerships generally are those where the nonprofit’s mission and the company’s core business correlate. For example, an athletic clothing manufacturer is a perfect match for an afterschool soccer league. Many businesses seek one-day volunteer opportunities that can accommodate all of their employees. If your organization is painting the walls of schools, serving free meals to the needy or setting up for a fundraising event, short-term assistance from an army of volunteers can be a lifesaver. However, you shouldn’t create work where it doesn’t exist, particularly if coming up with activities or managing volunteers will put a strain on staff resources. Also be wary when companies offer volunteers on short notice. To be successful, corporate volunteer days take planning. For example, you may need to arrange such logistical details as meals or prepare training instructions and educational materials. Other opportunities If you must turn down an eager corporate volunteer, do so carefully. Explain how the offer may, in fact, cost your nonprofit time and money. Then propose other volunteer opportunities. Group volunteer days aren’t the only way to take advantage of employees who want to help. Many companies provide paid time for staff to volunteer for the charity of their choice. Other companies make financial contributions to organizations where employees volunteer. Getting help To find companies with volunteer programs, check with the Points of Light Foundation (pointsoflight.org), VolunteerMatch (volunteermatch.org) or regional groups. Once you have a corporate partner, make sure you dedicate time to building the relationship. Think beyond a one-day volunteer event and try to gain an ongoing commitment, such as quarterly — and possibly some financial support, too. © 2019  With Thanksgiving behind us, the holiday season is in full swing. At this time of year, your business may want to show its gratitude to employees and customers by giving them gifts or hosting holiday parties. It’s a good idea to understand the tax rules associated with these expenses. Are they tax deductible by your business and is the value taxable to the recipients?
Customer and client gifts If you make gifts to customers and clients, the gifts are deductible up to $25 per recipient per year. For purposes of the $25 limit, you don’t need to include “incidental” costs that don’t substantially add to the gift’s value, such as engraving, gift wrapping, packaging or shipping. Also excluded from the $25 limit is branded marketing collateral — such as small items imprinted with your company’s name and logo — provided they’re widely distributed and cost less than $4. The $25 limit is for gifts to individuals. There’s no set limit on gifts to a company (for example, a gift basket for all team members of a customer to share) as long as they’re “reasonable.” Employee gifts In general, anything of value that you transfer to an employee is included in his or her taxable income (and, therefore, subject to income and payroll taxes) and deductible by your business. But there’s an exception for noncash gifts that constitute a “de minimis” fringe benefit. These are items small in value and given infrequently that are administratively impracticable to account for. Common examples include holiday turkeys or hams, gift baskets, occasional sports or theater tickets (but not season tickets), and other low-cost merchandise. De minimis fringe benefits aren’t included in your employee’s taxable income yet they’re still deductible by your business. Unlike gifts to customers, there’s no specific dollar threshold for de minimis gifts. However, many businesses use an informal cutoff of $75. Important: Cash gifts — as well as cash equivalents, such as gift cards — are included in an employee’s income and subject to payroll tax withholding regardless of how small and infrequent. Throwing a holiday party Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, certain deductions for business-related meals were reduced and the deduction for business entertainment was eliminated. However, there’s an exception for certain recreational activities, including holiday parties. Holiday parties are fully deductible (and excludible from recipients’ income) so long as they’re primarily for the benefit of non-highly-compensated employees and their families. If customers, and others also attend, holiday parties may be partially deductible. Spread good cheer Contact us if you have questions about giving holiday gifts to employees or customers or throwing a holiday party. We can explain the tax rules. © 2019  A hypothetical not-for-profit staffer named Britney had maxed out her personal credit cards. So when her car needed repairs, she reached for her employer’s card. She reasoned that she would come up with the money to pay the bill before her boss ever saw a statement. Britney didn’t come up with the money. But lucky for her, her boss didn’t review the card statement that month. When Britney needed to buy holiday gifts, she reached for her work card again — and again. By the time her boss finally noticed the illicit charges, Britney had spent more than $5,000.
This kind of credit card misuse or fraud is more common in nonprofits than you may think. But if you write and enforce a strong card use policy at your organization, you can help prevent Britney’s and her boss’s mistakes. Who needs one? Your policy should start with who has the right to a card. Nonprofits commonly issue cards to their executive directors, program directors and office managers (or other employees responsible for buying supplies). Before issuing a card to other staffers, consider whether they really need it. Most can pay out of pocket and submit reimbursement requests. However, if employees travel or entertain donors regularly on your nonprofit’s behalf, it may make sense to give them cards. Just ensure that cardholders understand the rules. Explicitly say (even if it seems obvious) that they can’t use the card for personal expenses, and list prohibited uses such as cash advances and electronic cash transfers, as well as charges over a specified amount. State that reimbursement for returns of goods or services must be credited directly to the card account. Employees should never accept cash or refunds directly. What’s management’s role? Manager involvement is essential to helping prevent credit card abuse. Require employees to seek preapproval prior to incurring any credit card charge. Stress that unauthorized purchases (and related late fees and interest) will become the employee’s responsibility. Employees should be required to provide documentation (such as itemized receipts) to their authorizing supervisor for review. Supervisors need to indicate their approval of the charges by a signature and date on the receipts or on a standardized expense form. Your accounting department should reconcile monthly credit card statements, and the statements should be reviewed by an executive or board member. How do you enforce it? Make sure staffers understand the possible consequences of violating your credit card policy, including employment termination and criminal prosecution. To ensure there’s no misunderstanding, require employees to acknowledge that they’ve read the policy and agree to follow it in writing before they receive a card. Contact us if you have any questions. © 2019  If your company faces the need to “remediate” or clean up environmental contamination, the money you spend can be deductible on your tax return as ordinary and necessary business expenses. Of course, you want to claim the maximum immediate income tax benefits possible for the expenses you incur.
These expenses may include the actual cleanup costs, as well as expenses for environmental studies, surveys and investigations, fees for consulting and environmental engineering, legal and professional fees, environmental “audit” and monitoring costs, and other expenses. Current deductions vs. capitalized costs Unfortunately, every type of environmental cleanup expense cannot be currently deducted. Some cleanup costs must be capitalized. But, generally, cleanup costs are currently deductible to the extent they cover:
Maximize the tax breaks In addition to federal tax deductions, there may be state or local tax incentives involved in cleaning up contaminated property. The tax treatment for the expenses can be complex. If you have environmental cleanup expenses, contact us so we can help plan your efforts to maximize the deductions available. © 2019  Accounting for contributions and grants has often proven complicated for not-for-profits, especially when they come with donor-imposed conditions. But 2018 guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) provided some much-needed clarification of earlier instructions.
Provider factor Traditionally, nonprofits have taken varying approaches to characterizing grants and similar contracts as exchange transactions (also known as reciprocal transactions) or contributions (nonreciprocal transactions). The new guidance makes the process relatively simple. To determine how to treat a grant or similar contract, assess whether the “provider” receives commensurate value for the assets it’s transferring. If so, treat the grant or contract as an exchange transaction. If the provider doesn’t receive commensurate value, determine whether the asset transfer is a payment from a third-party payer for an existing transaction between you and an identified customer (for example, payments made under Medicare). If it is, the transaction isn’t a contribution, and other accounting guidance would apply. If it isn’t, the transaction is accounted for as a contribution. Conditional questions Distinguishing between conditional and unconditional contributions has been the other main challenge for nonprofits. But the new rules stipulate that a conditional contribution includes:
Already in effect The FASB’s Accounting Standards Update No. 2018-08 already affects most nonprofits. It takes effect for most organizations that are recipients of funds for annual reporting periods starting after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2019. The rules generally take effect one year later for organizations that are resource providers. Note that, as a result of this guidance, you may find yourself accounting for more grants and similar contracts as contributions than you have in the past. If you aren’t sure what this means for your financial statements, loan covenants and other matters, contact us. © 2019  A month after the new year begins, your business may be required to comply with rules to report amounts paid to independent contractors, vendors and others. You may have to send 1099-MISC forms to those whom you pay nonemployee compensation, as well as file copies with the IRS. This task can be time consuming and there are penalties for not complying, so it’s a good idea to begin gathering information early to help ensure smooth filing. Deadline There are many types of 1099 forms. For example, 1099-INT is sent out to report interest income and 1099-B is used to report broker transactions and barter exchanges. Employers must provide a Form 1099-MISC for nonemployee compensation by January 31, 2020, to each noncorporate service provider who was paid at least $600 for services during 2019. (1099-MISC forms generally don’t have to be provided to corporate service providers, although there are exceptions.) A copy of each Form 1099-MISC with payments listed in box 7 must also be filed with the IRS by January 31. “Copy A” is filed with the IRS and “Copy B” is sent to each recipient. There are no longer any extensions for filing Form 1099-MISC late and there are penalties for late filers. The returns will be considered timely filed if postmarked on or before the due date. A few years ago, the deadlines for some of these forms were later. But the earlier January 31 deadline for 1099-MISC was put in place to give the IRS more time to spot errors on tax returns. In addition, it makes it easier for the IRS to verify the legitimacy of returns and properly issue refunds to taxpayers who are eligible to receive them. Gathering information Hopefully, you’ve collected W-9 forms from independent contractors to whom you paid $600 or more this year. The information on W-9s can be used to help compile the information you need to send 1099-MISC forms to recipients and file them with the IRS. Here’s a link to the Form W-9 if you need to request contractors and vendors to fill it out: https://bit.ly/2NQvJ5O. Form changes coming next year In addition to payments to independent contractors and vendors, 1099-MISC forms are used to report other types of payments. As described above, Form 1099-MISC is filed to report nonemployment compensation (NEC) in box 7. There may be separate deadlines that report compensation in other boxes on the form. In other words, you may have to file some 1099-MISC forms earlier than others. But in 2020, the IRS will be requiring “Form 1099-NEC” to end confusion and complications for taxpayers. This new form will be used to report 2020 nonemployee compensation by February 1, 2021. Help with compliance But for nonemployee compensation for 2019, your business will still use Form 1099-MISC. If you have questions about your reporting requirements, contact us. © 2019  It’s no secret that this is a challenging time for charitable fundraising. In its annual Giving USA 2019 report, the Giving USA Foundation noted a decrease in individual and household giving, blaming such impersonal factors as tax law changes and a wobbly stock market.
So why not fight back by making personal appeals to supporters? Requests from friends or family members have traditionally been significant donation drivers. Even in the age of social media “influencers,” prospective donors are more likely to contribute to the causes championed by people they actually know and trust. Success strategies The dedicated members of your board can be particularly effective fundraisers. But make sure they have the information and training necessary to be successful when reaching out to their networks. When making a personal appeal to prospective donors, your board members should: Meet in person. Letters and email can help save time, but face-to-face appeals are more effective. This is especially true if your nonprofit offers donors something in exchange for their attention. For instance, they’re more likely to be swayed at an informal coffee hour or after-work cocktail gathering hosted by a board member. Humanize the cause. Say that your charity raises money for cancer treatment. If board members have been impacted by the disease, they might want to relate their personal experiences as a means of illustrating why they support the organization’s work. Highlight benefits. Even when appealing to potential donors’ philanthropic instincts, it’s important to mention other possible benefits. For example, if your organization is trying to encourage local business owners to attend a charity event, board members should promote the event’s networking opportunities and public recognition (if applicable). Wish list Consider equipping board members with a wish list of specific items or services your nonprofit needs. Some of their friends or family members may not be able to support your cause with a monetary donation but can contribute goods (such as auction items) or in-kind services (such as technology expertise). If you’re concerned about declining donations and need help finding new revenue streams, contact us for ideas. © 2019  One of the most laborious tasks for small businesses is managing payroll. But it’s critical that you not only withhold the right amount of taxes from employees’ paychecks but also that you pay them over to the federal government on time.
If you willfully fail to do so, you could personally be hit with the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty, also known as the 100% penalty. The penalty applies to the Social Security and income taxes required to be withheld by a business from its employees’ wages. Since the taxes are considered property of the government, the employer holds them in “trust” on the government’s behalf until they’re paid over. The reason the penalty is sometimes called the “100% penalty” is because the person liable for the taxes (called the “responsible person”) can be personally penalized 100% of the taxes due. Accordingly, the amounts the IRS seeks when the penalty is applied are usually substantial, and the IRS is aggressive in enforcing it. Responsible persons The penalty can be imposed on any person “responsible” for the collection and payment of the taxes. This has been broadly defined to include a corporation’s officers, directors, and shareholders under a duty to collect and pay the tax, as well as a partnership’s partners or any employee of the business under such a duty. Even voluntary board members of tax-exempt organizations, who are generally exempt from responsibility, can be subject to this penalty under certain circumstances. Responsibility has even been extended in some cases to professional advisors. According to the IRS, being a responsible person is a matter of status, duty and authority. Anyone with the power to see that the taxes are paid may be responsible. There is often more than one responsible person in a business, but each is at risk for the entire penalty. Although taxpayers held liable may sue other responsible persons for their contributions, this is an action they must take entirely on their own after they pay the penalty. It isn’t part of the IRS collection process. The net can be broadly cast. You may not be directly involved with the withholding process in your business. But let’s say you learn of a failure to pay over withheld taxes and you have the power to have them paid. Instead, you make payments to creditors and others. You have now become a responsible person. How the IRS defines “willfulness” For actions to be willful, they don’t have to include an overt intent to evade taxes. Simply bowing to business pressures and paying bills or obtaining supplies instead of paying over withheld taxes due to the government is willful behavior for these purposes. And just because you delegate responsibilities to someone else doesn’t necessarily mean you’re off the hook. In addition, the corporate veil won’t shield corporate owners from the 100% penalty. The liability protections that owners of corporations — and limited liability companies — typically have don’t apply to payroll tax debts. If the IRS assesses the penalty, it can file a lien or take levy or seizure action against the personal assets of a responsible person. Avoiding the penalty You should never allow any failure to withhold taxes from employees, and no “borrowing” from withheld amounts should ever be allowed in your business — regardless of the circumstances. All funds withheld must be paid over on time. If you aren’t already using a payroll service, consider hiring one. This can relieve you of the burden of withholding and paying the proper amounts, as well as handling the recordkeeping. Contact us for more information. © 2019 |
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