Photo of Susan Leahy

Susan Leahy

Susan Leahy advises tax-exempt and not-for-profit organizations on a wide variety of matters. She counsels clients on Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, rules regarding private benefit, self-dealing, inurement, unrelated business income tax, intermediate sanctions, relationships with for-profit organizations, joint ventures, corporate sponsorship, lobbying, and political activities.

In a letter sent to newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last Wednesday, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren called for renewed efforts to “rein in abuse by ‘dark money’ organizations” and urged Secretary Yellen to bolster the IRS’s “woefully inadequate” regulation and enforcement related to the political activity of 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations.  As

Certain tax-exempt organizations are no longer required to report to the IRS the names and addresses of donors on IRS Form 990, Schedule B, according to final regulations published on May 28, 2020.  Noncharitable organizations, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) trade associations, may report only the amounts received from each substantial contributor

The Internal Revenue Service today announced proposed regulations to eliminate donor information disclosure requirements for certain nonprofits.  The proposed regulations provide “relief from requirements to report contributor names and addresses on annual returns filed by certain tax-exempt organizations, previously provided in Revenue Procedure 2018-38.”  Once the notice is published in the Federal Register, the

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) must adhere to public notice-and-comment procedures before it can relieve certain tax-exempt organizations of the burden of reporting the names and addresses of their donors to the IRS, a Montana federal court ruled this week.  Last year’s Revenue Procedure 2018-38 provided that tax-exempt organizations, other than 501(c)(3) charities, were no

While the din over a possible government shutdown dominated the headlines, political law played a supporting role in the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act (Pub. L. No. 115-141).  The content and omissions of the so-called “Omnibus” spending bill will be of interest to political actors in all sectors, but particularly those operating nonprofit

UPDATE:  The provision in the House bill, discussed below, was not included in the final Conference Agreement that became law. 

There is one very important political law provision to watch as the tax bill moves to a final vote in the Senate, and potentially a conference committee reconciles the House and Senate versions.  This amendment

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued two private letter rulings (PLRs) that may be interesting for tax-exempt organizations that engage in political activity.

In the first ruling, the IRS held that a company could not deduct payments made to charity under a PAC matching contribution program as an “ordinary and necessary business expense.”  While

Under recent legislation, newly-created and certain existing 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations must file a notice with the IRS.  In the past, social welfare organizations were not required to submit an application (Form 1024) to the IRS to be recognized as a tax-exempt organization but could “self-declare” exempt status, as long as the organization operated pursuant