Paul Streckfus, Editor
1 – Off to the Land of Oz
2 – More on Nonprofit Pay
3 – Remarks of Commissioner Douglas Shulman to Council on Foundations
I don’t think I am being unfair in saying that this speech, reprinted below, is the kind of speech you give when you want to say nothing — certainly nothing new. It seems to me that this speech was a missed opportunity to say something meaningful to the foundation community.
4 – IRS Releases FAQ on Failure to File Revoctions
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Today’s report is from the front lines, so it will be just a few bullet points of what folks from the IRS said on Thursday at Georgetown’s 27th Annual “Representing & Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations” Conference. I hope to have transcripts of some of the more interesting discussions in the weeks and months to come.
Today I got to hear Diana Aviv, President, Independent Sector, Sarah Hall Ingram, Commissioner, TE/GE, and Jason Lilien, New York Office of the Attorney General, speak on nonprofit governance. The speakers were fine, but having sat through several sessions on nonprofit governance over the past few years, I’m familiar with most of the major points.
For those wishing that governance in the tax context would go away, Sarah Hall Ingram said the IRS emphasis on governance is here to stay, that the tax rules do interact with an EO’s corporate structure. According to Ingram, “It’s all about risk management.” She said a mission statement is important, as is an engaged and independent board. The organization needs to be transparent to both donors and the public.
Yesterday evening I attended a panel discussion on “Philanthropy in the 21st Century: Should All Charities Be Created Equal?” sponsored by Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.
Panelists included Diana Aviv, President of Independent Sector, Richard Schmalbeck, Professor of Law, Duke University, Eugene Steuerle, Fellow at the Urban Institute, and Russell Sullivan, Staff Director, Committee on Finance, United States Senate. The moderator was Roger Colinvaux, Professor of Law, Catholic University.
1 – Old Business
In regard to Wednesday’s email update item on “Owens Protests Denial of Technical Advice,” Marc reported yesterday that he has received a favorable response to his February 15 letter to Diane Ryan, Chief, IRS Appeals, in which he sought technical advice over the objections of IRS case workers.
Monday’s email update on excerpts from Sarah Hall Ingram’s Feb. 5 remarks has drawn comments.
Former EO Branch Chief Connie Rosenberg had this to say:
“I think Sarah’s answer to the question about Service failure to publish formal guidance was quite truthful, if you parse it out carefully. What she said, in effect, was: we can’t figure out how to get publications out because we, collectively, can’t figure out how to stop tripping over each other. As Winston Churchill once said (whenever I’m not sure who said something, I always cite Churchill, and I’m usually right): the way to begin is to begin. The way to stop tripping over each other is to stop tripping over each other. Set up a formal procedure for initiating and clearing a publication; follow that procedure; establish due dates for movement at each stage of the process; appoint a high-ranking management official to monitor the due dates and insist that they be met, and provide consequences for the bureaucrat who fails to meet them; be prepared to deal with the consequences of actually making a decision. Those things are the jobs of management. It ain’t rocket science now, any more than it was 25 years ago, but it does take some guts.”