Greetings!

I find the upside of the winter season (Yes, upside. I’ll never outgrow my California roots…) is that I can take advantage of the slightly quieter times to focus on organization and business details. Well, our mild-ish winter has brought an all-but-mild workload. So, before January completely escapes me, I want to post about a few important issues.

Great Board Training Opportunity in Madison!

I would like to call attention to this great training opportunity by Melanie Schmidt as part of her “Building Better Boards” series. Below is a blurb on Melanie’s session:

Nonprofit organizations have one thing in common: Boards of Directors. The more effectively the Board operates, the more effectively the organization can advance its mission. This seminar series is for anyone interested in building stronger nonprofit Boards of Directors. Bring your challenges, and leave with ideas for making a greater impact. Your session leader is Melanie Schmidt, a nationally certified governance trainer who brings extensive experience working with nonprofit Boards of Directors and organizational dynamics to connect the dots between strategy, systems and people.

The topics include HR issues, Board communication, building a “dashboard” for your organization, strategic planning, budgeting, fundraising, mission-driven marketing, and effective use of committees. The next session is Friday, February 20th. All sessions will be held at the Wegner CPAs office. You can register for the event here: http://www.timpanogroup.com/speaker/event_BBB2015.html

Helpful Blog Post on What Boards Should Review

I follow the very helpful “Nonprofit Law Blog”. I think you all will find this recent post particularly useful as you plan for the upcoming year: http://www.nonprofitlawblog.com/nonprofit-board-calendar-agenda.

Of course, it is likely not practical or necessary to review all of these items every year or to do the review on this particular schedule, but it is a good list of issues that deserve Board attention.

Form 1099 Due to SNL and Other Contractors

The Form 1099-MISC must be issued to independent contractors, such as Scholz Nonprofit Law, whom your organization has paid for services or rent in 2014 by January 31, 2015 and submitted to the IRS, along with Form 1096, by February 28, 2015. The circumstances in which your organization is required to issue a 1099-MISC include:

  • payments to individuals or partnerships totaling $600 or more for services or rent in 2014.  Note that this requirement does not apply to employees of your organization, who should receive a W-2 by January 31st.  Also, note that this requirement applies only to payments made to persons who receive payments individually, through a sole proprietorship, or through a partnership (including an LLC that is taxed as partnership). You do not have to issue a 1099 to independent contractors who receive payment through a corporation; and
  • any payments over $600 made to law firms, regardless of whether the firm is a corporate entity. This means that any payments that you made to Scholz Nonprofit Law LLC must be reported on a 1099-MISC if the payments totaled over $600 in 2014.  If you do not already have this information from us, we can provide the Form W9, which has information about Scholz Nonprofit Law’s employer identification number.

Unfortunately, you cannot download the 1099 forms off the IRS website. At this point, given the deadline, if you accounting software does not have this option, you will need to get the forms from an IRS office (in Madison at 1242 Fourier Drive, Suite #200, (608) 829-5827. Note: they are closed from 12-1 PM for lunch!).

I hope the New Year is off to a great start.

 

All the best,

Melissa