Senate: More disclosure for charities needed

A Senate committee wrote the Treasury Department a letter asking the IRS to include additional disclsoures in the Form 990 annual tax return. Specifically:

• Executive pay and perks
• Expanded questions on governance
• Expanded questions on endowments
• Related organizations and joint ventures (to determine if there are private benefits)
• The amount of money spent on fundraising

The next Form 990 may be more time-consuming to complete if all of these measures are adopted, but they certainly would give the public a better understanding of the internal workings of any given charity. The devil's in the details, however... if the IRS agrees and adds these sections in a new 990, but gives poor guidance on how one fills out the section, there could be problems. More to come on this, to be sure...