Month: June 2012

Operation Blessing excludes value of deworming medicine from its 2011 tax return

The Form 990 from Operation Blessing International for their year ending March 31, 2011 does not include any value for $113,043,709 of deworming medicine that was included on their audited financial statements for that year.

Between the date the audited financial statements were released and when the 990 was filed about seven months later, the ministry decided to remove the amount of contributions for deworming medicine and remove expenses of the same amount.

Operation Blessing has made it really easy to read their audited financial statements and tax return for 2011. You can get either of them with one click at the bottom of this page of their website.  Hats off to them for putting both reports in an easy to find place.

Here is the timing:

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Jim Ulvog

Deadline for filing reports on overseas cash is only a week away – June 30

The IRS has a major push underway to identify people who have hidden cash overseas to avoid paying taxes. That enforcement effort is  obviously not a big deal to the nonprofit community.

However, the reporting requirement still applies to ministries that have cash located in their overseas programs.

Here’s the issue:  If an individual or organization has ownership or signature authority in an overseas bank account that goes over a mere $10,000 at any point during the year, there is a report that has to be filed by June 30 of the following year.

Even though the severe penalties are intended to encourage people to report all their taxable income, those filing requirements and heavy penalties could create serious problems for an NPO.

If your ministry has cash located overseas, you really need to pay attention to this reporting requirement.

Here is some background that the IRS sent out today in an e-mail update to NPOs:

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Jim Ulvog

Ideas for using social media in crisis management

Deloitte Australia has a good list of tips for the social media aspects of managing a crisis. Planning beforehand is key.  It’s better to do some planning before you have a disaster, but life sometimes gets in the way of planning.

If you find yourself in a mess, their ideas will get you started.  If you want to do some planning, they have some good ideas.

A few key thoughts:  (more…)

Jim Ulvog

10 easy ways to get sued as an employer – don’t go there

The California Chamber of Commerce has a list of the most common mistakes employers make that result in lawsuits. You can find the full list at The Top 10 Things Employers Do to Get Sued.

Here are three that you may not have heard about before. Since I’m not an attorney, I will summarize some of the points made by CalChamber.

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Jim Ulvog

8 more tips on avoiding traps for local churches.

Verne Hargrave, CPA, of the accounting firm PSK, is continuing his great series on traps that business administrators can fall into. He is offering tips on avoiding the traps.

Previously mentioned this in my post here.

New discussions include:

Trap #2 Operating without a compensation plan (part 1)

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Jim Ulvog

Guidance on valuing medical GIKs in the 2011 NPO Audit Risk Alert

The issue of determining fair value of donated pharmaceuticals has been quiet for a little while. I’ve not seen much discussion of mebendazole on the ‘net lately.  Perhaps it is safe to venture back into the waters.

I’d like to mention some of the accounting guidance that is around and provide a few comments.

The AICPA’s 2011 Not-for-Profit Entities Industry Developments Audit Risk Alert contains a two-page discussion of valuing gifts-in-kind (GIK).  SOme key paragraphs are quoted below along with my comments.

This is not an exhaustive discussion of the issue and is not a position paper.

This is intended to further the conversation on valuing GIKs, especially for people who don’t keep copies of the audit risk alerts on their nightstand for leisure reading. (You may now roll your eyes in pity for those of us who enjoy reading such things.)

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Jim Ulvog