Introduction

Tax-exempt organizations, while not generally subject to tax, are subject to tax on their “unrelated business taxable income” (“UBTI”).  One category of UBTI is debt-financed income; that is, a tax-exempt organization that borrows money directly or through a partnership and uses that money to make an investment is generally subject to tax on a portion of the income or gain from that investment.[1]  However, under section 514(c)(9),[2] “educational organizations” are not subject to tax on their debt-financed income from certain real estate investments.

The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota is one of the country’s leading hospitals.  Between 2003 and 2012, the Mayo Clinic was a partner in a partnership that borrowed money to make real estate investments.[3]

On November 22, 2022, U.S. District Court for the district of Minnesota held that the Mayo Clinic qualified as an educational organization within the meaning of section 514(c)(9) and, therefore, was not subject to tax on the debt-financed income from the partnership.[4]

On October 21, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released Notice 2021-56 (the “Notice”), which sets forth the additional requirements a limited liability company (“LLC”) must satisfy to obtain a determination letter recognizing its tax-exempt status under sections 501(a) and 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.[1]

The Notice also requests public comments by February 6, 2022 to assist the IRS and Department of the Treasury in determining whether further guidance is needed. Of particular interest are potential conflicts with state LLC statutes. For instance, the Notice requests comments on whether an LLC could be formed for exclusively charitable purposes in states that require LLCs to be profit-seeking, and whether other provisions of state LLC statutes could prevent an LLC from qualifying for federal tax exemption. In addition, the Notice asks whether an LLC seeking section 501(c)(3) status should be allowed to have members that are not themselves section 501(c)(3) organizations, governmental units, or wholly-owned instrumentalities of governmental units.

On July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court struck down a California donor-disclosure law as facially unconstitutional in its decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta.[1]  The law required nonprofits operating or soliciting contributions in California to disclose to the Attorney General of California information about all of its donors who contribute more than $5,000 each year (generally, through a requirement that nonprofits submit a copy of their Schedule Bs from their IRS Form 990s).[2]  The decision clarified the rules applicable to disclosure requirements with respect to the First Amendment, and while the decision itself addressed nonprofit disclosures, its scope could stretch significantly beyond this area.

On January 19, 2021 the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) published in the Federal Register Final Regulations (the “Final Regulations”) interpreting the excise tax under Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code on certain executive compensation paid by

Proposed Regulations under Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code provide important guidance for tax-exempt organizations and their affiliates regarding an excise tax on certain executive compensation.  The U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) are accepting comments until August 10, 2020.  (Throughout this post, “Sections” refer to sections of the Internal Revenue Code.)

As a refresher, Section 4960 was enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”).  Effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, Section 4960 imposes an excise tax at the corporate tax rate (currently at 21%) on certain remuneration in excess of $1 million and on certain separation pay (“excess parachute payments”).  The excise tax falls on “applicable tax-exempt entities” (“ATEOs”) and related organizations.  It is intended to have the same economic effect as a for-profit corporation losing a tax deduction.

The Proposed Regulations are generally consistent with the IRS’s interim guidance under Notice 2019-09 (the “Notice”), which is discussed here and here.  But the Proposed Regulations elaborate on certain points and include some helpful changes in response to comments.

If finalized, the Proposed Regulations will apply for tax years beginning on or after the final regulations are published in the Federal Register.  Until then, tax-exempt organizations may apply a “reasonable, good faith” interpretation of the statute.  For this purpose, tax-exempt organizations may rely on the Proposed Regulations or the Notice.  Although the Proposed Regulations are not binding, they include a list of positions that the IRS considers to be an unreasonable interpretation of the statute.

On May 26, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued final regulations (the “Final Regulations”) relaxing nonprofit donor disclosure requirements under section 6033[1] of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) for many non-charitable tax-exempt organizations. Stated generally, section 6033 requires organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(a) (including section 527 political organizations) to file an annual information return with the IRS, such as a Form 990, Form 990-EZ, or Form 990-N. Section 6033 and the regulations thereunder grant the IRS discretionary authority to determine what information must be reported on such return in light of the efficient administration of the internal revenue laws.

The Final Regulations largely adhere to the proposed regulations issued in September 2019 (the “Proposed Regulations”) and provide that tax-exempt organizations other than section 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, such as section 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and section 501(c)(6) trade associations, are no longer required to annually disclose the names and addresses of “substantial contributors” (those contributing $5,000 or more) on Schedule B of their Forms 990 or 990-EZ. The Final Regulations confirm, however, that all tax-exempt organizations must continue to report the amounts of contributions from each substantial contributor and maintain the names and addresses of such contributors in their books and records, should the IRS request this information at a later date. Moreover, the revised disclosure rule does not extend to section 501(c)(3) charitable organizations or section 527 political organizations, and such organizations must continue to disclose the names and addresses of substantial donors on annual information returns.

On April 23, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued helpful proposed regulations under section 512(a)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “proposed regulations”).  Section 512(a)(6) was enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) and requires exempt organizations (including individual retirement accounts) to calculate unrelated business taxable income (“UBTI”) separately with respect to each of their unrelated trades or businesses, thereby limiting the ability to use losses from one business to offset income or gain from another.[1]  In August 2018, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued Notice 2018-67 (the “Notice”), which provided interim guidance on the application of section 512(a)(6).  The proposed regulations liberalize and simplify the initial guidance in the Notice.  In short:

  1. Very helpfully, the proposed regulations use the two-digit North American Industry Classification System (“NAICS”) codes as the primary method of identifying separate trades or businesses, rather than the six-digit codes suggested in the Notice. This reduces the numbers of trades or businesses from over 1,050 under the Notice to twenty under the proposed regulations, which will greatly reduce the compliance burden for many tax-exempt entities and enhance their ability to use losses.
  2. The proposed regulations helpfully liberalize the rules contained in the Notice that allow tax-exempt entities to treat investment activities (including, in particular, “qualifying partnership interests” (“QPIs”)) as a single trade or business (and thereby aggregate net income and gains and losses from those investment activities). However, the proposed regulations should clarify that traditional minority rights that may be held by a tax-exempt entity in an investment partnership do not disqualify an interest in that partnership from being a QPI.

The proposed regulations will apply to taxable years beginning on or after the date the regulations are published as final; however, taxpayers may rely on the proposed regulations before they are finalized.  In addition, until the proposed regulations are finalized, exempt organizations may rely on a reasonable, good-faith interpretation of what constitutes a separate trade or business under current law or the methods described in the Notice for aggregating or identifying separate trades or businesses.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) quietly added two new questions and answers regarding virtual currency donations to its answers to Frequently Asked Questions on Virtual Currency Transactions (FAQs) on December 26, 2019.  The two new answers address the responsibilities of charitable organizations when accepting donations of virtual currency, including

On Friday, December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law government funding legislation for the 2020 fiscal year that includes a provision repealing Section 512(a)(7), commonly referred to as the “parking tax,” with retroactive effect to the date of its enactment.[1]  Section 512(a)(7) was enacted pursuant to the

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law changes to the private foundation excise tax on net investment income under Section 4940 of the Internal Revenue Code.[1]

For purposes of Section 4940, net investment income is the excess of gross income from interest, dividends, rents and royalties (“gross investment income”), plus capital gain net income, over expenses paid or incurred in the production or collection of gross investment income or for the management of property held for the production of gross investment income.[2]  Prior to the new legislation, Section 4940 imposed an excise tax of 2% on the net investment income of most domestic tax-exempt private foundations.[3]  This tax rate could be reduced to 1% if a foundation made certain charitable distributions during the tax year equal to or greater than the sum of (a) the assets of the foundation for the tax year multiplied by its average percentage payout for the five tax years preceding that year, plus (b) 1% of the foundation’s net investment income for the tax year.  In order to qualify for the 1% rate, the foundation also could not be liable for any taxes under Section 4942 (taxes on failure to distribute income) for any of the previous five tax years.