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Update on Families First Coronavirus Response Act

March 26, 2020

On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), requiring employers to provide certain sick pay and family medical leave benefits to eligible employees affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The FFCRA requires the federal government to cover the cost of the required benefits on an almost real-time basis via refundable payroll tax credits. While there are still some areas of the new law that lack clarity, we have summarized the currently available guidance regarding required payments and the related payroll tax credits below, along with Q&A and Examples to help your organization digest the technical provisions therein.

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Employment/Governance

NONPROFIT LAW NEWSFEED

Yale Taken to Task by Public at City Budget Hearing

04/01/2020

New Haven Register With a $30.3 billion endowment, city residents who represent many elements of the city — such as teachers, students, non-profit workers and Yale employees — said the university is the elephant in the room as Mayor Justin Elicker’s budget includes a 3.56 percent tax rate increase and would shrink the size of several departments in a city where the distribution of economic resources is already uneven across neighborhoods.

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After Years of Community Organizing, Nonprofits Now Get Much-Needed Relief from Dangerous Tax Lien Sale

03/31/2020

Gotham Gazette Our interconnectedness has rarely been more pronounced than it is in this moment. The fact that we can take so many of our life-sustaining connections into the digital sphere is an unprecedented miracle. But if you’re missing New York’s places of physical gathering, where many of those connections were first forged, you’re not alone.

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New Bill Would Give Ministers the Opportunity to Opt-in to Social Security

02/26/2020

ECFA  Congressman Kevin McCarthy recently held a press conference with local pastors about his newly introduced bill, the Clergy Act. This bill would offer ministers – many of whom opted out of paying into Social Security in their youth – a two-year “open season” to effectively opt-in to Social Security.

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Bill responds to Salina LLC’s tax puzzle

02/14/2020

The Ottawa Herald  A pair of elected officials from Saline County joined forces Tuesday to lend a hand to the Salina-based nonprofit humanitarian organization caught up in an unusual decision to block a property tax exemption.

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Some Nonprofit Hospitals Aren’t Earning Their Tax Breaks, Critics Say

02/10/2020

The PEW Charitable Trusts  On a recent morning at John H. Stroger Hospital, hardly a seat was to be had in any of the first-floor clinic waiting rooms. Not in audiology.

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IRS revises Form 1023 for applying for tax-exempt status

02/03/2020

IRS  As part of an ongoing effort to improve service for the tax-exempt community, the Internal Revenue Service has revised Form 1023 to allow electronic filing for the first time starting later this month.

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How To Claim a Refund or Credit of Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) or adjust Form 990-T for Qualified Transportation Fringe Amounts

01/24/2020

IRS  If you wish to claim a refund or credit of the UBIT reported on your Form 990-T for 2017 or 2018 under Section 512(a)(7), you may do so by filing an amended Form 990-T as described in the form’s instructions and do the following as well.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Announces Proposed Rule Regarding Equal Treatment of Faith-Based Education Institutions, Provides Updated School Prayer Guidance

01/17/2020

U.S. Department of Education  Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that the Department of Education is taking several concrete actions to protect religious liberty and ensure the Department is acting in accordance with the First Amendment. The Department announced a proposed rule ensuring the equal treatment and constitutional rights of religious organizations and faith-based institutions, as well as First Amendment freedoms owed to students on campus. As directed by Congress, the agency will also release updated guidance regarding constitutionally protected prayer in schools.

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Expedited Parking Tax Refunds Requested From IRS

01/15/2020

ECFA  In a letter dated January 8, 2020, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee leadership (Richard E. Neal, Ways and Means Committee Chairman and John Lewis Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight) have called on the IRS to establish an expedited process for tax-exempt organizations to obtain refunds of unrelated business income on parking and transportation benefits provided to their employees.

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A woman sued a church for reporting her husband's sex abuse confession to the police

01/13/2020

CNN  An Oregon woman whose husband is in prison for sexually abusing a child is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for reporting his confession to state authorities.

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Yale Taken to Task by Public at City Budget Hearing

04/01/2020

New Haven Register With a $30.3 billion endowment, city residents who represent many elements of the city — such as teachers, students, non-profit workers and Yale employees — said the university is the elephant in the room as Mayor Justin Elicker’s budget includes a 3.56 percent tax rate increase and would shrink the size of several departments in a city where the distribution of economic resources is already uneven across neighborhoods.

READ MORE

After Years of Community Organizing, Nonprofits Now Get Much-Needed Relief from Dangerous Tax Lien Sale

03/31/2020

Gotham Gazette Our interconnectedness has rarely been more pronounced than it is in this moment. The fact that we can take so many of our life-sustaining connections into the digital sphere is an unprecedented miracle. But if you’re missing New York’s places of physical gathering, where many of those connections were first forged, you’re not alone.

READ MORE