Nonprofits and the Strain of the Form 990

Nonprofits and Hospitals are spending too much time and money reporting their finance and other activities to the federal government.

The House Ways and Means Committee hosted a hearing recently where this view was revealed, and where there was a call to change standards for getting charity status to wear groups get that title by making positive contributions as opposed to refraining from lobbying and engaging in untaxed business activities.

The new 990 tax form has resulted in many reporting burdens on institutions because it requires so much information. Hospitals should be spending their limited resources on meeting their community’s health care needs as opposed to reporting the processes they used to meet those needs.

See Derek Lieu, IRS Urged to Reduce Paperwork Burden on Charities, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 16, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.