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The U.S. Nonprofit Organization's Public Disclosure Regulations Site |
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The U.S. Nonprofit Organization's Public Disclosure Regulations Site |
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Introduction |
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A surprising number of nonprofit organization administrators don't realize that federal law requires most tax-exempt nonprofit organizations to allow public inspection of their recent federal annual information returns (e.g. IRS Form 990 and Form 990 Schedule A) and their application for tax-exempt status (e.g. IRS Form 1023 or 1024), along with nearly all associated material. Furthermore, the public access requirements have been significantly expanded, requiring that copies of these be provided upon request unless the organization makes these documents widely available. "Widely available" currently means publication of these documents on the World Wide Web in an acceptable format.
The new rules promise a critical change in the accountability of public charities and other tax-exempt organizations to the U.S. tax-payers, who are ultimately supposed to benefit from the preferential tax treatment given to exempt organizations. Tax-exempt organizations will generally be required to make easily available to the public many details of their finances and operations that may not be included in their regular annual reports.
The federal annual information returns and application for tax-exempt status are not substitutes for an annual report or an accounting audit, as they were primarily devised only to aid the IRS in determining if an organization qualifies for tax exemption. Nevertheless, these documents serve as valuable resources for members of the public who wish to examine a nonprofit organization's financial and operational activities, by demanding a relatively consistent structure to the presentation of certain critical information, and by instituting a legal requirement for accurate financial data that is publicly available. A fairly clear picture of an organization's finances and operations should be rendered by its IRS returns and application for exempt status together with an annual report and the financial statements usually accompanying it.
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Purpose |
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This site exists to encourage nonprofit organizations to publish their IRS annual informational returns and application for tax-exempt status online as a means of promoting public accountability, as well as to satisfy federal law. The site serves three purposes:
Please note that this is not an official IRS or government site, and the author is neither a professional lawyer nor accountant. Every tax-exempt nonprofit organization is responsible on its own for obtaining correct information from qualified advisors regarding the legal and financial obligations of tax-exempt status. In no way should the material at this site be construed as providing legal or financial advice. This site was created simply as one part of the large and complex mosaic illustrating, supporting, and demanding public accountability from nonprofit tax-exempt organizations. Accordingly, please do NOT write to me with your questions regarding public access to tax returns or other nonprofit organization issues, because I will be unable to help you. If the resources this site provides links to don't enable you to answer your question, then you need to contact a lawyer or accountant.
This site is not operated or sponsored by the IRS or any government agency.
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Resources |
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The resources you'll find here are:
NOTE: This site is not the "Form 990 Web Site," which is a demonstration project that shows how an online Form 990 submission and retrieval system could work, and also provides HTML templates of the Form 990 pages for use by organizations who wish to publish their tax-returns online in this format. The Form 990 Web Site has different but related goals, and is operated independently from this site. I encourage you to visit it.
ANOTHER NOTE: (1/20/98) Until recently, this site offered to post 501(c)(3) organizations' annual informational returns online for free. Because the final regulations expanding public disclosure are expected to be released at any time, a large increase in NPOs interested in posting online can be expected shortly. Unfortunately, the size of these documents and the cost incurred by the site administrator to publish them online precludes being able to handle a large influx.
However, in order to still offer some sort of mechanism to help NPOs, a separate service, 990online.com, has been established. Through this service, you may publish online your organization's annual information returns or application for tax-exempt status. The service is available to all tax-exempt organizations. If you have your own Web site, then 990online.com can provide you with electronic copies of your documents that are suitable to publish to your own site. The 990online.com service is operated by the same person who administers this site, but is intended to be able to pay for itself rather than coming out of the administrator's pocket.
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Supporters |
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Although this site is a personal project of its author, Eric Mercer, it would not be possible without the generous aid of supporters. I would like to thank DU Educational Technology Services, Inc., for the use of their software, and the participants in the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee's Cyber-Accountability Group ("cyber-acc") and CharityLaw mail lists for their encouragement and advice. Also, the AIDS Service Provider Accountability Project provided significant inspiration for me to establish this site.
| Last modified 05May99 Copyright © 1998-1999 Eric Mercer. All rights reserved. |
The U.S. Nonprofit Organization's Public Disclosure Regulations Site |
