Form 990

Everyone is familiar with April 15, the dreaded day when individual tax returns, also known as Form 1040, are due. Lesser known is May 15, the day when virtually every non-profit corporation and association has to submit Form 990. Allthough they are sometimes called non-profit tax returns, they are more accurately called information returns as no tax is computed nor expected as a result of the 990's.

What the 990 and it's several attachments and schedules do, is provide an open slate of uniform information. It essentially makes a non-profit corporation a public company which is appropriate since they operate free of income tax thus effectively get an operating subsidy from the taxpayers. Form 990 is available free on the Internet for any non-profit corporation . Some non-profits realizing they have to submit the information anyway, have taken this opportunity to also add community relations material in the same web site.

This year the Form 990 was drastically changed. The biggest change appeared to me to be the addition of several questions and data forms asking if money or non-cash assets have been given to governments, organizations, or persons outside the United States. It seems clear to me that the Patriot Act or a similar act has proposed that non-profit agencies are, or could be, a major "hole" in the nation's armor. And although there are few prohibitions against such grants across borders, the revised Form 990 will raise the issue in a big way.