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Arizona is the latest state to enact benefit corporation legislation. Arizona recently passed benefit corporation legislation (SB 1238). Arizona joins fifteen other jurisdictions including California, New York, and the District of Columbia that have already passed legislation. While the new law is not effective until December 31, 2014, the Arizona benefit corporation offers social entrepreneurs an important new option to consider when forming a new venture.
News and Avoiding Scams

Arizona Adopts the Benefit Corporation

Arizona recently passed benefit corporation legislation (SB 1238). Arizona joins fifteen other jurisdictions including California, New York and the District of Columbia that have already passed legislation. While the new law is not effective until December 31, 2014, the Arizona benefit corporation offers social entrepreneurs an important new option to consider when forming a new venture.

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Directors vs. Trustees
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Arizona Open Meeting Law Basics

We are often asked whether nonprofits must follow Arizona open meeting law (OML). Generally, nonprofits are not required to follow open meeting law; however, there are some exceptions “ most notably charter schools. Charter schools are treated as public institutions for OML purposes because they are both funded with state tax dollars and are overseen by the state.

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News and Avoiding Scams

Small Change Could Spell Big Relief for Small Arizona Nonprofits

simple change in Arizona law would sync the state and federal information return processes, allowing a more simplified filing for small Arizona nonprofits with gross income between $25,000 and $50,000. The purpose of the recent change in federal requirements was to ease the burden of the annual filing for small nonprofits. To reconcile Arizona law with the Federal law, the Arizona legislature need only amend ARS §43-1242 C. 1 to read as follows:

Need not file it if its gross income does not exceed fifty thousand dollars.

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News and Avoiding Scams

California Passes Legislation Creating New Structures for Social Enterprise

Increasingly, social entrepreneurs struggle to choose a legal form for their ventures. The traditional legal forms are not suited to blended social and profit-making purposes. Mangers of a for-profit socially responsible business can find themselves liable to shareholders for failure to maximize profit at all coasts. Conversely, managers of tax-exempt nonprofits conducting social entrepreneurial activities can find themselves liable to the IRS when they try to reward investors and incentivize results.

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News and Avoiding Scams

Deductions for Nonprofit Volunteers

The Court reasoned that the most important consideration in determining deductibility of unreimbursed expenses is whether or not the volunteer work causes or necessitates the expense. If the expense is incurred solely in connection with one’s duties as a volunteer, such as buying food for a foster pet, the expense is deductible. If, however, the expense is one that would have been incurred regardless of one’s duties as a volunteer, such as repairs or insurance for a car that is used for personal transportation as well as transportation related to volunteer duties, the expense will be considered to have been incurred regardless of any volunteer service, thus it is not a deductible expense.

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News and Avoiding Scams

Relief for Revoked Nonprofits

Today, the IRS has made public the long awaited list of organizations that automatically lost their tax-exempt status due to their failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-N for three consecutive years. The IRS announced that it has revoked the tax-exempt status of approximately 275,000 such organizations, including over 4,000 in Arizona.

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