May 31, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Following widespread confusion among charities over how much information they must provide about their key officials to the Internal Revenue Service, the tax agency has posted informal guidelines on its Web site.
The IRS last year revised its Form 990, the federal informational tax return charities must file annually, to call for more information about each organization’s officers, directors, and key employees.
Among the new pieces of information charities had to disclose were more details about the compensation their officials received and about relationships among those officials. Charities said the questions were vaguely worded and could force them to provide reams of unnecessary information or violate the privacy of officials by providing information about compensation they received from other organizations.
In response, the IRS has deleted some requirements and provided more information about certain questions.
A copy of the guidelines, “2006 Form 990 Q & A’s,” is available online.
