This past April the IRS released for public comment draft instructions to the redesigned Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, to be filed beginning with 2008 tax years (2009 filing season). The IRS has completed its review of the public comments and made revisions to the draft instructions, and expects to post the revised instructions on its web site in the next few weeks.
The upcoming release of revised Form 990 (2008) instructions will be accompanied by background documents that will explain changes made to the draft instructions, including the following:
* A revised definition of key employee for purposes of reporting executive compensation, transactions with interested persons, and other items
* A list of foreign countries within each of nine geographic regions to be used for reporting foreign activities on the Form 990, Schedule F, Statement of Activities Outside the United States.
* Specific reporting requirements for which the reporting organization may rely on reasonable efforts to obtain information required from interested persons or third parties
* A revised standard for determining independence of a voting member of the organization’s governing body
* For Schedule H, Hospitals, a revised definition of facility for purposes of completing Part V, Facility Information, for 2008 tax years (2009 filing season)
* For Schedule K, Supplemental Information for Tax-Exempt Bonds, the revised instructions will provide relief for refunding bonds issued after 2002 to refund pre-2003 bonds, by exempting such refunding bonds from having to be reported in Part III, Private Business Use
The IRS anticipates the complete revised set of draft instructions will be posted on the its web site by Aug. 15, 2008. Read the news release.
