On March 15, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held in Gaylor v. Mnuchin that the tax exemption for “ministers of the gospel” (defined below) under Section 107(2) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) does not violate the Establishment Clause[1] of the First Amendment

On December 31, 2018, the Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) released Notice 2019-09 (the “Notice”), which provides interim guidance under Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Very generally, Section 4960 imposes a 21% excise tax on certain tax-exempt entities (and certain related

December 10, 2018 saw significant activity with respect to Section 512(a)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), which requires tax-exempt employers to increase their unrelated business taxable income (“UBTI”) by amounts paid or incurred for qualified transportation fringe benefits provided to employees, including the provision of parking and public

Last week, the IRS released Notice 2018-95 to provide transition relief to 403(b) plans that improperly excluded certain employees.  Specifically, Notice 2018-95 targets employers that may have erroneously excluded part-time employees from eligibility to make elective deferral when the employees should have been eligible to participate under the “once-in-always-in” requirement

Proskauer’s 23rd Annual Trick or Treat Seminar was held on Wednesday, October 31.

The Seminar discussed:

  • Sexual Harassment in the #MeToo Era
  • Taxing Times for Tax-Exempt Organizations: The Impact of Tax Reform on Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits for Tax Exempt Organizations
  • Recent, Spooky Tax Changes Affecting the UBTI

On August 21, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released Notice 2018-67 (the “Notice”), addressing issues relevant to tax-exempt organizations arising under new Section 512(a)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), promulgated pursuant to the 2017 U.S. tax legislation that is commonly referred to as the “Tax Cuts and

On February 23rd, the IRS issued a memorandum to its examiners instructing them not to challenge a 403(b) plan for failing to satisfy the required minimum distribution (“RMD”) rules with respect to missing participants or beneficiaries if the plan sponsor has taken certain specific steps to find them.

Generally, the RMD rules require that a 403(b) participant must begin taking minimum distributions by the April 1st following the year the participant reaches age 70 ½ or, if the plan allows, the April 1st following the year that the participant retires, if later.  Questions frequently arise regarding whether the IRS may challenge a plan for failing to timely commence benefit payments to participants that the plan is unable to locate.

Early on December 2, 2017, the Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Senate Bill”).  This blog entry describes certain provisions of the Senate Bill that would have the most significant impact on the nonprofit community, including important differences between the Senate Bill and the prior version of the Senate bill and the bill passed by the House of Representatives (the “House Bill”) (both of which we described several weeks ago in “Updates for Tax-Exempt Organizations from the Senate Markup to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”).

Introduction

On May 4, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that directs the executive branch to limit its enforcement of the “Johnson Amendment.” As previously reported, the Johnson Amendment prohibits organizations that are exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code from engaging in political campaign activities.¹ The executive order limits enforcement of the Johnson Amendment or any other adverse action against any individual or religious organization for speaking about moral or political issues from a religious perspective. The executive order is unlikely to have any meaningful practical effect because, as has been widely reported, the Johnson Amendment is not currently being enforced.

The executive order also directs the Secretaries of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to write regulations to address objections to the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that employers fund contraceptive health services for their employees.