A U.S. Senator is attempting to regulate charitable promotions by companies that promise to give part of the proceeds from a purchase to a particular charity.

But some observers say a bill he proposed to oversee these promotions has been poorly researched and steps on the toes of state regulators.

Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, last month proposed a bill that would require companies to reach agreements with charities on how their names will be used and how much money they will receive before using it in promotions, and to inform consumers how much money will go to charity.

The Federal Trade Commission would be told to enforce the agreements.

“Charity should never be used solely as a sales pitch,” Mr. Menendez said in announcing the bill. “When consumers open their wallets, they should have the comfort of knowing that their good intentions will be protected and that...

The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday released its final draft of the redesigned Form 990.

Jack Siegel, an expert on nonprofit accounting, says the new form is a big step forward.

Mr. Siegel has devoted three posts on his blog, Charity Governance, to breaking down the pros and cons of the revamped form, which many groups will have to file starting with the 2008 tax year.

His major gripe: The form fails to present financial information in a format similar to what is found on most standard nonprofit balance sheets.

But, over all, Mr. Siegel — who has provided the IRS with scores of suggestions about the form since the tax agency released its first draft in June — said he is pleased with the final results.

“Everybody will have their gripes, but on the whole, the IRS did a marvelous job of integrating the sector’s comments into final product,” Mr. Siegel writes. “To some extent...

The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday will make public the final version of its redesigned Form 990 informational tax form, officials said today.

The IRS is revamping the document, which charities with more than $25,000 in annual revenue must file with the tax agency.

An initial draft of the form was released in June.

The tax agency made several changes to the draft in October after it received more than 650 public comments about the proposed form.

The final version of the form will incorporate other suggestions from the public — and IRS officials have said that the agency will probably outline plans to delay the date when some of the proposed changes would take effect.

The Chronicle will post details about the IRS’s actions as soon as the agency has announced its plan.

Lawyers representing the World Healing Center Church met this morning with members of Sen. Charles Grassley’s staff to discuss a Senate request for the church to turn over its internal financial documents.

The Grapevine, Tex., church, which oversees the affiliated Benny Hinn Ministries, is one of six evangelical groups that Mr. Grassley has asked for information as part of an informal investigation into the groups’ spending and compensation practices.

Two other groups, Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo., and Kenneth Copeland Ministries, in Newark, Tex., have sent financial information to Mr. Grassley’s staff in response to the request.

The World Healing Center Church has been given until Wednesday to file its forms with Senator Grassley, though it was uncertain today whether the organization will comply with that request.

The six groups had been given until Thursday,...

Only one of the six Christian ministry groups under examination by Sen. Charles E. Grassley has turned over financial records as part of an informal investigation into their spending and compensation practices.

Iowa’s Mr. Grassley said his office has received financial statements from Joyce Meyer Ministries, in Fenton, Mo., and that his staff will review the materials.

The organization, in a statement, said it planned to submit the information even through it was not “under obligation by law.”

The six groups have been given until today to comply with Mr. Grassley’s request, which comes in response to news coverage and complaints from the public about the ministries’ spending habits.

Mr. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that he is holding out hope that the other five groups will submit information to his office by the end of...

Liberty University is facing criticism following comments made by its chancellor in support of Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the university’s chancellor and the son of the noted evangelist Jerry Falwell, held a forum last month for the former Republican governor of Arkansas at the university, in Lynchburg, Va. Mr. Falwell also endorsed the candidate on the university’s Web site.

A news alert posted on the college’s Web site reported that “Falwell gave his personal endorsement in a news conference after the service.” It quoted Mr. Falwell as saying Mr. Huckabee is “my top choice.”

“He’s one of us,” Mr. Falwell said in the article on Liberty’s Web site. “A lot of the other candidates try to talk like evangelicals, but he’s actually one of us. He believes like we do on all the issues. He’s really, I think, got a good chance at being the next president of...

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exempt status of a California charity after the agency determined that the charity was funneling money to the campaign fund of a former state official.

The decision follows a 2004 investigation by the California Attorney General’s office, which determined that the charity — the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center — had used intermediaries to donate money to the 2002 campaign fund of former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

According to court records, the charity had been formed in August 1999 to provide bilingual education, housing and health care to the elderly, and youth education in San Francisco.

As part of its initial efforts, the organization had received a $492,500 state grant in 2001 to build a community center. But the facility was never built.

Instead, the California Attorney General’s office determined...

The Internal Revenue Service is expecting to announce in mid-December more changes to the proposed revision of the Form 990 informational tax form.

The tax agency has already rewritten parts of the tax form in response to the more than 650 public comments it received after it released a draft of the revised form in June.

A spokesman said the IRS is considering several other issues that have been raised in the public comments and that it might outline plans to delay when some parts of the form will take effect — largely to help charities that might need more time to change their financial reporting procedures.

The announcement will include “some pretty detailed and expansive explanation about what we are doing,” Steve Pyrek, an IRS spokesman, said in an interview.

The IRS has been planning to nake a final version of the form available by the end of the year — with the goal of...

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett told a key Senate committee that he believes private foundations are stockpiling money instead of distributing it to charity because of the federal requirement that foundations grant at least 5 percent of their assets annually.

Mr. Buffett, speaking at a recent Senate Finance Committee hearing on the estate tax, told lawmakers that he finds it “astounding” that 27 of the 30 nation’s largest foundations spend almost exactly 5 percent of their assets each year.

“If you set it at 3 percent, most of them would spend 3 percent,” said Mr. Buffett.

The 5-percent-rule, he said, encourages foundation leaders to think about preserving their organizations instead of pushing them to think creatively about how to fulfill their missions and solve problems.

Mr. Buffett, the chief executive officer of the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway has pledged...

When the House of Representatives passed its controversial Responsible Tax Relief Bill this month, it also voted to extend a tax incentive that allows older donors to deduct money contributed to charities through their individual retirement accounts.

The incentive, which allows tax-free charitable contributions for taxpayers age 70 1/2 from their IRA accounts, is scheduled to expire on December 31. The House bill would extend the provision for another year.

Many nonprofit groups and foundations have been pushing for an extension of the incentive, saying that it gives donors more flexibility and that it encourages giving.

Some organizations, including the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the National Committee on Planned Giving, have also been lobbying to expand the incentive to include younger donors and to cover contributions to donor-advised funds.

Those measures a...