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Nonprofit Law Blog	MARSHALL-MELHORN.COM TERMS OF USE SEARCH CURRENT ARCHIVES • 7/24/2007 - 9/11/2007

Monday, November 05, 2007 Donations of Consumer Goods Can a donor or a charity be liable if donated food, toys, or other consumer goods makes someone sick? Ohio Revised Code Section 2305.37 addresses the issue, and has been expanded, effective October 18, 2007. The law gives civil immunity to donors and charities who distribute food or consumer goods to needy individuals, and protects them from being sued for donating tainted items. The protection applies if the donor and charity determined that the donated items were safe, except in cases of gross negligence or intentional misconduct. An item is not considered unsafe just because its "sell by" date has expired. The section was recently expanded to include consumer goods (not just food) and to protect distributing charities (not just donors). References: http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses127/07-hb89-127.pdf http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=127_HB_89 Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 Charitable Gaming--Withholding Obligations As a reminder, a charitable organization that sponsors games of chance, poker tournaments, bingo, raffles, etc., may be obligated to issue winners a W-2G, and may also be obligated to withhold income tax from winnings. This reporting and withholding obligation may apply to games of chance with individuals winning $600 or more. Noncash payouts, for example, a new car, must be valued at fair market value, and the winner may be required to pay withholding tax to the charitable organization as a condition to receiving the prize. IRS Publication 3079 explains in more detail. Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thursday, September 20, 2007 Get your federal EIN online At long last, the Internal Revenue Service has launched "EIN Assistant," an online tool for obtaining employer identification numbers (which all nonprofits need, regardless of whether they have employees. Link: https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/modiein/individual/index.jsp Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 Charitable Organization Information Network (COIN) The Ohio AG is rolling out its online registration and information database, the Charitable Organization Information Network or COIN. This will allow charitable trusts, charitable solicitors, professional fundraisers, and organizations involved in charitable gaming to register, file reports, obtain bingo licenses, and pay necessary fees online, and will allow the public to access information online. Apparently COIN will interact with electronic filing of 990s through the Internal Revenue Service, so a charitable trust will not need to duplicate efforts to file its annual report with the Ohio AG (currently, charities typically send a copy of their 990 to the Ohio AG). This probably signifies that the AG will more closely enforce reporting requirements and collection of filing fees. Link: https://coin.ag.state.oh.us/DesktopDefault.aspx Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ohio Nonprofit Law Update--Gaming Charitable gaming came up at the Ohio Nonprofit Law Update. The Ohio Attorney General has been trying to ban certain so-called "games of skill" that resemble slot machines. A recent AG rule allows "games of skill" only if they can be won by skill and they pay prizes (no cash) worth less than $10. This was to keep Chuck E. Cheese out of jail. A recent press release on the subject: http://www.ag.state.oh.us/press/07/09/pr070904.asp While this isn't relevant to most charities, we'd heard reports that the AG planned to completely overhaul the rules on charitable gaming, such as raffles, bingo, and poker tournaments. Assistant Chief AG Monica Moloney stated on September 6 that there currnetly is no such plan. Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ohio Nonprofit Law Update On September 6, I attended the Ohio Attorney General's nonprofit law update session in Toledo, presented by Assistant Chief Monica Moloney. It was largely a review of the existing laws on charitable trusts, charitable solicitation, and charitable bingo, but there were a few news items: There are about 24,000 charities in Ohio, and about 2,000 bingo licenses. In recent years, 85% of the AG's efforts were devoted to bingo issues. Obviously, not much was going on outside of bingo issues. Audits of nonprofits were infrequent and random. The AG has since shifted some of its efforts to oversight of nonprofits and professional fundraisers. Charitable trust/charitable solicitation registration info is migrating from paper files to an electronic database, which will allow citizens to find this information easily, and will allow the AG to use statistical triggers to target nonprofits more likely to be out of compliance. This should help increase the integrity of Ohio's nonprofit sector, but also makes it more important than ever to follow the rules. As the (relatively) new AG, Marc Dann is just starting to implement many of the changes. One of the focus areas will be on health care organizations; in particular, requiring them to demonstrate community benefit through charity care. 501(c)(4) health care entities (e.g., many HMOs) will now be required to register and report as charitable trusts, and thus will be under closer scrutiny. Posted By Craig P. Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thursday, August 02, 2007 Fundraising with Raffles and Games of Chance Many church festivals and other nonprofit events have bingo, 50/50 raffles, casino nights, poker tournaments, and other gambling-related fundraising activities. These activities are subject to state gambling laws. The Ohio attorney general's office is enforcing these laws more vigorously than in the past. (This started under Jim Petro and is continuing under Marc Dann, so it doen't seem to be partisan in any way.) A violation is a criminal act, and police have actually raided events in Northwest Ohio. It is possible to hold these events legally with careful planning. Posted By Craig Burns View Comments (0) \| Add Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .