AboutHarvey Mechanic Expertise US Federal tax issues of nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charities only. Establishing and maintaining legal requirements for such non-profit organizations in the United States, including Internal Revenue service filings and requirements. I will not be working on this free forum to answer questions about Nonprofit's unrelated or for-profit businesses or how to fill out forms. This forum is only for general questions about federal tax law, not as the law applies to your specific situation.
To search my previous answers you can do a Google search: site:allexperts.com/q/nonprofit [with your other search terms appended].
Experience I have been practicing law and especially the law of nonprofit organizations since 1990 when I was admitted to the New York Bar.
Education/Credentials B.S. Columbia University in New York City, 1970
J.D. (Law Degree) Brooklyn Law School, 1990 -- Cum Laude
Question I have a Website that is set up if people want to make donations for animals... i also have Yahoo Group to help people with their animals... I am NOT a 501c3... if people make a donation on the website will i get into trouble? or if people send me donations since i am NOT a non-profit is this ok?
Answer I have in my profile that this free forum is only for relevant IRS federal exemption issues of 501(c)(3) organizations. The IRS has no objection and the funds are not taxable to you if you turn over all of the funds to a charity. The donors will get a dononation deduction if you are legally obligated, as an agent, to pass through the funds to a 501(c)(3) organizations. The IRS in 2002 became concerned about allowing deductition for
money given to non-charitable organizations for charitable
organizations and published a memo about Agency.
www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-utl/topicc02.pdf
Your issues are also controlled by state law and states may differ somewhat with how they would treat such issues. Even though this forum is not for such state law issues, I can inform you that many states require persons to register if they collect donations for charitable purposes. The site
www.nasconet.org/agencies
has a list of the state offices that regulate charitable
organizations and charitable solicitations.
Harvey Mechanic
Attorney at Law
Harvey108@hotmail.com
