Non-Profit Organizations
Tax laws are complicated and so are the requirements an organization must meet to qualify for tax-exempt status. In cooperation with our Tax and Wealth Planning & Probate practice group, our Nonprofit Organizations attorneys assist clients who want to establish nonprofit corporations and trusts and seek to qualify those entities as public charities or private foundations. Our attorneys assist clients from the very beginning planning stage to forming the nonprofit entity and obtaining its tax exemption.
Clients rely on our attorneys’ in-depth knowledge of the rigorous process of obtaining tax-exempt status, as well as our familiarity with the rules to maintain that status. Churches, museums, pet rescue organizations, cemetery associations, schools, healthcare organizations, and philanthropic families and individuals are just some examples of entities and persons with whom our attorneys have worked, setting up initial tax-exempt status or updating documents to comply with new laws in the nonprofit arena. Our attorneys work regularly with the complex questions surrounding unrelated business income, ramifications of certain types of investments and activities, and countless other concerns. Additionally, our attorneys partner with other firms lacking in-house nonprofit practices to provide these services for their clients.
In addition to working with non-profit organizations at the beginning stage of starting the public charity or private foundation, our attorneys have extensive experience with assisting existing tax-exempt non-profit organizations in expanding or reorganizing their operations without losing their tax exemption.
Our attorneys’ wealth of experience encompasses:
- Nonprofit entity selection and formation
- Obtaining and maintaining federal tax-exempt status
- Obtaining and maintaining state tax exempt status
- Maintaining federal and state tax exempt status through expansion or reorganization
- Terminating a nonprofit entity
- Assisting directors and trustees of exempt organizations and charitable trusts with governance and planned giving
- Creating and maintaining charitable lead and charitable remainder annuity trusts and unitrusts
- Helping individuals with charitable lifetime and testamentary planning
