October 14, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Planning Guide for the Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations: Strategies and Commentaries
by Bruce R. Hopkins
This book offers assistance to lawyers, accountants, and others navigating the often-confusing legal issues that affect tax-exempt organizations.
Bruce R. Hopkins, a lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., writes that he intends the book to be a tool for resolving a specific legal problem, or for determining whether a tax-exempt organization could find itself in legal trouble. This volume is a companion to his earlier book The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations.
Chapters discuss key areas of the laws governing nonprofit groups, such as those designed to prevent charity officials from gaining undue financial benefits from their associations with a charity, advocacy activities, the use of subsidiaries, unrelated business endeavors, and participation in joint ventures. Mr. Hopkins notes how these issues relate to one another and to the operations of nonprofit groups, and lays out strategies for both avoiding and solving legal problems.
The book also provides a comprehensive checklist for evaluating whether nonprofit groups are complying with state and federal laws, as well as advice on whether tax-exempt status is the right choice for an organization. Mr. Hopkins also weighs in on how charities should deal with court opinions that limit an organization’s activities or are difficult to apply in a real-world context. He offers recommendations on when to ignore or skirt around an opinion, and when to watch out for potential legal headaches.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (877) 762-2974; http://www.wiley.com; 436 pages; $95; I.S.B.N. 0-471-47122-4.
