Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service has given tax-exempt organizations that operate one or more hospital facilities three months’ extra time to file their 2010 Form 990, and said they should actually not file the form until July 1, 2011.

In order to complete implementation of changes to IRS forms and systems that are required to reflect additional requirements for charitable hospitals enacted by Section 9007 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the IRS said it is delaying the start of the 2010 filing season for certain hospital organizations.

Nonprofits can alert donors that, when they shop online at various retailers using Buy4.com, eligible purchases will provide commissions of 1 percent to 30 percent to their favorite charities.

ALTHOUGH many critics have denounced the tax deal reached in December by Congressional leaders and the Obama administration as tax cuts for the rich, personal wealth advisers who specialize in philanthropy also foresee benefits for charities.

The new law was unexpectedly generous in the area of gift and estate taxes, exempting $5 million a person from taxation. That means that a couple can give or bequeath assets worth up to $10 million tax-free during this year and next, when the law is in place.

Saying they eschew outside fund-raisers, several South Shore nonprofit organizations are objecting to a California-based website’s unauthorized use of their names and information.

The organizations, including the Plymouth-based Friends of the Ellisville Marshes and the Carver-based Friends of Myles Standish State Forest, say a new website called Charity Blossom asks people to make “pledges’’ of contributions to them and to other registered nonprofits.

The Internal Revenue Service has raised the financial threshold for tax-exempt organizations.

Instead of a $25,000 threshold, as of the Jan. 1, 2010 tax year, nonprofits with annual receipts of up to $50,000 can file the e-Postcard, or Form 990-N.

This means that many more of the smaller tax-exempt organizations can transition to the simpler Form 990-N for their 2010 annual information reporting.

This is welcome news for many nonprofits because the smaller organizations tend to be run by one or two people.

Investors demand a good return from their assets. Now donors are increasingly seeking the same for their charitable dollars.

Finding the worthiest, most-efficient organizations to maximize the impact of your donations couldn't be more pressing.

Donors are rethinking their giving strategies, says Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "They want to make sure now more than ever that they're using their money wisely."

If 2010 seemed like a bad year for your favorite charity, just wait for 2011.

Already struggling this year, cash-strapped nonprofits face the prospect of continued high demand with even more cuts next year, especially for those organizations heavily reliant on state and local government funding. And those signs of a slow recovery for the rest of the economy probably won't come in time to buoy the charitable sector in 2011.

A high-level committee that offered a plan for reducing the federal government's debt today issued a proposal that would radically change the way the tax code treats charitable gifts.

The proposal would essentially eliminate the charitable tax deduction.

In its place, all donations made by federal taxpayers would qualify for a 15-percent tax credit. But instead of that credit going to the taxpayer, it would be given to the charity receiving the donation in the form of a matching grant from the Internal Revenue Service.

As voters prepare to head to the polls Tuesday, philanthropy experts are looking ahead to a new Congress that will probably shift the way it approaches legislation that is important to the nonprofit world.

With Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the body’s leading nonprofit watchdog, expected to take on a new role, they predict a less aggressive approach to charity regulation in the Senate. But with Republicans projected to win a majority in the House, charities could nonetheless face heightened scrutiny in some areas.

Before regulations changed in 2006, nonprofits making less than $25,000 annually didn't have to file annual tax returns. Congress, however, passed legislation mandating almost all tax-exempt organizations except churches file annual forms starting in 2008.

The law also requires a nonprofit failing to file the appropriate forms for three consecutive years to be stripped of its federal tax-exempt status, and 2010 is the first time companies could have three years of noncompliance, according to a statement from IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.