IRS Going After Charities Behavior?

by Gary Snyder

The nominee, John Koskinen,  to head the embattled Internal Revenue Service said that, if confirmed, he would launch an inquiry into nonprofit organizations that have lost millions of dollars to financial wrongdoing and failed to disclose the circumstances to donors and law enforcement, according to the Washington Post.

Members of Congress have said they are troubled that accounts of multimillion-dollar losses have come to light through news media reports and not from IRS enforcement actions.

The Washington Post reported this year that it had identified more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations that in recent years disclosed on annual tax returns that they had suffered significant diversions — many of them acts of fraud and embezzlement carried out by insiders at the organizations.

The diversions highlighted in the articles totaled hundreds of millions of dollars. But the newspaper’s investigation also found that, in violation of IRS reporting rules, many of the organizations failed to include in their disclosures the amounts they lost and other key details.

After a hearing this week, Senator Charles Grassley submitted a written question to Koskinen, saying he was troubled about the IRS’s “lack of oversight” of charities and nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Washington Post, Charity Navigator, Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio (NPR), Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), “Betrayal”, (a movie), NBC (on Charity Fraud…TBD), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Marie Claire, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, Charity Navigator, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, Board Room Insider, USA Today Topics, Accountants News, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times, Portfolio Magazine, The Virgin Islands Daily News, NANKAI (China) BUSINESS REVIEW, National Religious Broadcasters newsletter, The Charity Governance Blog, American Chronicle, Palm Beach Post, Detroit Free Press, Oakland Press, Nonprofit World, Socially Responsible Business Forum, PNNOnline, Ohio Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Good Practice Guide, Nonprofit Startup Guide, Nonprofit Blog, National Coalition of Homeless Newsletter, Finance and Administration Roundtable Newsletter, MichiganNonprofit.com, CORP! Magazine, Crain’s Michigan Nonprofit, ncrp.org, PhilanTopic, Nashville Free Press, Nonprofit Law Blog, Seniors World Chronicle, Carnegie Reporter, Assoc. of Certified Fraud Examiners Examiner, msnbc.com, Worchester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, Carnegie Corporation of America, EO Tax Journal, Wikipedia: Non-profit Organizations; Parent: Wise Austin, Accountants News, Veterans Today, Answers.com, Far-roundtable, #Nonprofit Report, nonprofithelpnews, nonprofit news; National Enquirer, Northwest Herald, The HelpWise Daily, The #Nonprofit Report, Wikipedia (Nonprofit Organization), Answers.com, Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)