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Individual, Foundation, Corporate Giving All Rose Last Year

Charitable giving from individuals, foundations, and corporations all increased last year, while gifts by estates decreased sharply, according to a newly completed analysis from the Giving USA Foundation.

The rise in total giving was spurred largely by giving from individuals, which increased nearly 4% in 2016, according to Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016.

Read the entire article here. 

IRS Announces Three New Members for Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities

The Internal Revenue Service announced the appointment of three new members of the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT). ACT advises the IRS on operational and procedural improvements, and presented a report and recommendations to IRS leadership at a June 7 public meeting.

The committee includes external stakeholders and representatives who deal with employee retirement plans; tax-exempt organizations; tax-exempt bonds; federal, state, local and Indian tribal governments.  New members will begin three-year terms and join seven returning members.

ACT was established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to provide an organized public forum for discussion of relevant issues affecting the tax exempt and government entities communities. At the public meeting, three ACT project teams will present reports that include recommendations pertaining to the following areas:

• Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) Replacement Plans: Recommendations Regarding FICA Replacement Plan Requirements.
• Future of the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities: Recommendations Regarding Changes Made to the ACT.
• Online Accounts: Recommendations Regarding Expansion of Online Accounts for Tax Exempt Entities.

  The Report of Recommendations document is available here. 

New Liquidity Disclosures for Not-for- Profits: Are You Ready?

Under current financial reporting standards, not-for-profits are not required to illuminate clearly restrictions that affect the availability of liquid resources in their financial statements. But this is all about to change with the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) new financial reporting standard (Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-14), effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. In this update, FASB clarifies that the nature of an asset isn’t the only quality that affects its availability.  The standard requires disclosure of qualitative and quantitative liquidity information.

Qualitative information discloses how the nonprofit manages its liquid resources to meet its operational needs within one year of the statement of financial information date.

Quantitative information refers to the amount of liquid resources a nonprofit has available to support ongoing operations.

This new requirement will be significant especially for organizations that are strained financially because financial statement users will now have more detailed information about their liquid resources.