Monday…Registering nonprofits, recent Weekly stories, and a thrift store find
ilind.net - Ian Lind, April 7th, 2008
My comments here on Saturday concerning SB3171 (registration of charities) drew a response from a friend that might be of interest.
Here’s his initial comment:
This bill is going to kill the small non-profits. Look at all the PTAs, soccer and little leagues, and other non-profits that are going to become criminals under this law. Think again that this isn’t going to be used to go after some poor smuck that doesn’t know how to prepare financial statements.
Then again, it is a boon to CPAs, because it is going to have the non-profits paying out of their noses to get into compliance with this law. Old saying, be careful for what you wish for.
I then countered:
PTA’s are exempted.
Organizations raising less than $25,000 annually are exempt from annual reporting.
Organizations will be able to substitute their federal tax forms for any state paperwork.
Organizations under $1 million do not have to provide an audited statement.
Perhaps I missed the criminal penalties, but I don’t see them here.
Much of the regulatory burden falls on professional solicitors (ie, generally, telemarketers).
I don’t see the big issues that you’re seeing here.
I should have said something about the several cases of small nonprofits being ripped off by insiders. Not that registration will deter embezzlement and theft, but at least it might cause groups to pay a bit more attention to how their funds are handled and accounted for. That would not be a bad thing....
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