The Internal Revenue Service has started a new audit program that will try to stop very rich individuals from using “complex financial arrangements” — including private foundations — to avoid paying taxes.

The new Global High Wealth Industry group “will centralize and focus IRS compliance expertise involving high-wealth individuals and their related entities, which can often have an international component,” Douglas H. Shulman, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, told a Washington conference of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

“For a variety of reasons, including valid business reasons, many high-wealth individuals make use of sophisticated financial, business, and investment arrangements with complicated legal structures and tax consequences,” Mr. Shulman said. “Many of these arrangements are entirely above board; others mask aggressive tax strategies.”

Mr....

More than 40 members of Congress have signed a letter asking House leaders to ensure that the final health-care-overhaul bill offers relief to small charities that provide health insurance to their employees.

“For health-care reform to be truly comprehensive, it must include nonprofit employers and their employees,” says the letter, which Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota, took the lead on.

The letter highlights the importance of the nonprofit workforce to the economy, and notes that current House proposals offer tax credits to help small for-profit employers offer insurance plans. (The credits would apply to income taxes, which charities do not pay.)

On the other hand, both Senate health-care bills, now in the process of being merged, provide help to nonprofit employers. The finance committee bill would provide credits for certain payroll taxes to charities with no more than...

Is your nonprofit group registered to solicit money in all 50 states?

In the past, it wasn’t necessary for many groups to file registration papers outside of their home states. But with the advent of online fund raising, many organizations are probably violating laws in some states because they are collecting donations without letting state authorities know.

Tony Martignetti, a planned-giving adviser in New York and author of Charity Registration: State-by-State Guidelines for Compliance, says he believes as many as 90 percent of all nonprofit groups have not complied with state registration laws.

And some states are starting to crack down.

This month, for instance, a foundation operated by H. Lamar Willis, an Atlanta city-council member, was fined $25,000 by Georgia regulators because it was not registered in that state, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

What should...

The Corporation for National and Community Service plans to issue final guidelines by the end of the year for groups that plan to apply for grants from the new Social Innovation Fund, with the first awards likely to take place in late spring or summer, corporation officials said today.

Congress has not yet adopted a budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which began October 1. However, while waiting for the official allocation, the corporation “can and expects to move forward” with the guidelines, or “notice of funding opportunity,” said Marta Urquilla, senior adviser for social innovation.

President Obama proposed $50-million for the fund, which will provide grants to help nonprofit groups expand promising programs to tackle pressing national social problems. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved that amount, but the House voted to cut it to $35-million. The full Senate has not...

The Internal Revenue Service has developed for its Web site a case study — and a series of videos — designed to help charities better understand what is required of them in the Form 990, the informational tax return that the IRS redesigned for the 2008 tax year.

The materials, called “The New Form 990: Getting Started,” were created by the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division “to help illustrate key points and answer important questions” about the revised form, the tax agency said.

The materials begin with a written set of facts that detail the organizational and financial aspects of a hypothetical charity, the Exempt Organization for Disaster Relief, which was “formed” to help people in three states.

Next comes a filled-out Form 990 with two schedules that show how the hypothetical organization would properly complete the annual return.

The IRS then offers seven videos, each...

National-service advocates are campaigning to persuade Congress to approve a bill to exclude from income tax the education grant that AmeriCorps members earn after completing their service.

The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award Tax Relief Act, H.R. 1596, was introduced by Rep. John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, and is now before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Unlike other federal education grants, such as Pell Grants and G.I. Bill aid, the AmeriCorps award — which rose to $5,375 on October 1 — is now treated as gross income for income-tax purposes.

AmeriCorps Alums and Voices for National Service are asking supporters to sign a letter to the Ways and Means Committee or to contact their Congressional representatives.

The Corporation for National and Community Service plans to hold a conference call next week to answer questions about the Social Innovation Fund, the new federal program that will provide millions of dollars to help nonprofit groups start or expand promising social projects.

The call will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, October 15. Information about how to participate is available on the corporation’s Web site.

The corporation and the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation have conducted more than 50 meetings with nonprofit groups, foundations, evaluation experts, academics, and others about how to design the fund, Nicola Goren, the corporation’s acting chief executive, writes today on the White House blog.

They have also conducted five listening sessions around the country and plan to hold several more during the next several ...

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, did not pursue votes on two amendments that he proposed to the committee’s health-care bill affecting executive compensation and governance at charities.

But he inserted comments on them into the record and reserves the right to propose the language later, either as part of the health-care bill or to another piece of legislation, said Jill Gerber, his press secretary.

The finance committee completed work early this morning on amendments to the bill drafted by Sen. Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the committee, and is expected to take a final vote next week.

Sen. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, proposed eliminating a “safe harbor” provision in IRS rules that allows executive compensation at charities to be deemed reasonable if the group follows certain steps. It would also require certain...

Alan Khazei, co-founder of the nonprofit group City Year and a prominent advocate of national service, announced yesterday that he has raised more than $1-million in his bid to succeed the late Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Only one other candidate,Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has raised more, according to The Boston Globe. Ms. Coakley has received more than $2-million.

Mr. Khazei raised the money in about two weeks thanks to a group of supporters who gave $5,000 each, says The Globe. He has also raised significant sums through house parties and online giving.

The fund-raising success establishes Mr. Khazei, less well-known than some of his rivals, as a competitive candidate, The Globe and other newspapers said.

The special election to replace Sen. Kennedy takes place on December. 8.

Independent Sector, a national coalition of charities and foundations, has renewed its call for Congress to ease rules that require charities and other employers to make certain payments to “defined-benefit” pension funds.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 made significant revisions to the so-called minimum funding rules for employers that provide pension plans with defined benefits, or specific amounts of money, to retired workers.

Nonprofit groups “have endeavored to meet the significantly increased minimum funding obligations imposed by the Pension Protection Act while maintaining programs upon which individuals and communities rely,” Independent Sector said in a statement issued as the House Ways and Means Committee met to discuss pension plans.

“The abrupt [stock] market decline last year turned those pension funding obligations into a severe problem never anticipated when...