By: Margaret Karren While attending the 2013 AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry Conference this past week in Washington D.C., I learned some interesting facts and statistics about employees committing fraud in the nonprofit sector. A typical fraud in a nonprofit organization is for $100,000. Billing fraud accounts for 24.9% of fraud cases. Billing schemes include unreco [...]

California sales/use tax law can be complicating to most businesses and organizations that operate in the state. In particular, nonprofit organizations must deal with the taxability issues of retail sales and meals and entertainment while being aware of the limited exemptions for these entities under California law. In an effort to assist nonprofits with better unders [...]

By: Margaret Karren Anna Maria Chavez from the Girl Scouts of the USA kicked off the Not-For-Profit Conference as the keynote speaker. Her topic "The Full Slate - The Economic Imperative of Leveraging the Full Potential of Women in the Modern Workforce". Ms. Chavez spoke of the great history and legacy of the Girl Scouts and the many changes they have made to ensure t [...]

Last week I blogged about the recent court ruling regarding interns and earlier in the year I blogged about the value of volunteers. The use of interns and volunteers by nonprofit organizations comes with legal risks, and it’s worthwhile to remember the 4 basic rules when working with volunteers: Rule 1: Do not pay volunteers in cash or in kind (expenses may be reimb [...]

This week’s ruling in New York by a Federal judge that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage and overtime laws by not paying interns should lead nonprofit organizations to reassess their policies for using interns. In the ruling, the judge held that Fox Searchlight Pictures should have paid the two interns who filed the lawsuit because they did the same work [...]

The purpose of this quarterly California Tax Legislative update is to provide our clients and prospective clients with timely and meaningful updates that affect both their personal income and business taxes.The 2nd Quarter of 2013 saw a proposed law change that could significantly impact the California tax posture of in-state businesses. The proposed law change, which [...]

The Role of the Audit Committee – A Refresher The Audit Committee, under the governing Board’s supervision, is responsible for making recommendations to the Board on the hiring and firing of the independent CPA. The Audit Committee can negotiate the independent CPA’s compensation, on behalf of the governing Board. The Audit Committee must: Confer with the auditor to [...]

The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration has estimated that the Internal Revenue Service issued between $11.6 billion and $13.6 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program for the fiscal year ended 2012. The EITC is a welfare program that is supposed to help low income families or individuals through a ref [...]

The purpose of this quarterly California Tax Legislative update is to provide our clients and prospective clients with timely and meaningful tax legislative updates that will affect both their personal and businesses taxes. While the First Quarter of 2013 was considerably slower from a legislative perspective than the Fourth Quarter of 2012, California continued on i [...]

By: Richard Ruvelson Many tax-exempt organizations are not aware of the fact that they may be entitled to claim credits for excise taxes paid for certain on-road and off-road vehicle use. For federal purposes, gasoline and aviation gasoline purchases may qualify for the credit. Ultimate purchasers of gasoline for uses including the following qualify: Off-highway bu [...]