I Got 99 Problems, but: the Society for Creative Anachronism\u2019s Not-for-Profit Tax Status Ain\u2019t One<\/p>\n
(Note: This post is not aimed at anyone in particular.\u00a0 It comes up a lot)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
(Note: While this post mainly applies to the SCA, the same thing likely applies to many 501(c)3 organizations).<\/i><\/p>\n
(NOTE: This is not legal advice.\u00a0 Do not use this as legal advice.\u00a0 It is a broad overview from websites available through Google, for God’s sake.\u00a0 If your shire is in deep poop, contact your Kingdom and the SCA.\u00a0 Do not do something and say \u201cWell, Uji said I could,\u201d because you are on your own there.)<\/i><\/p>\n
One of the things that drives me the most crazy in the SCA is people claiming that we can\u2019t do something (or have to do something) because we\u2019ll lose our tax status.\u00a0 It is the great bugaboo, the all-powerful gris gris, of the SCA.\u00a0 It\u2019s even mentioned in Silverwing\u2019s Laws (http:\/\/www.schuldy.org\/laws.html<\/a>).\u00a0 Dark cults circle fell fires in the night chanting arcane rituals whose meaning is lost to man and known only to the Night Vale City Council, sacrificing goats because if they don\u2019t\u2026WE\u2019LL LOSE OUR TAX EXEMPT STATUS, PEOPLE!\u00a0 DON\u2019T YOU CARE?\u00a0 WHY DON\u2019T YOU CARE?\u00a0 GRAB A GOAT YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!<\/p>\n Except\u2026it isn\u2019t true.\u00a0 Of course there are ways for us to lose our tax exempt status, but the majority of the time when this is brought up it isn\u2019t right.\u00a0 Either the person doesn\u2019t understand what our tax exempt status means, or they think it has onerous requirements that we have to keep up with.<\/p>\n In general, there are six ways for a 501(c)3 to lose its tax exempt status:<\/p>\n (Adapted from http:\/\/www.nonprofitrisk.org\/library\/articles\/How_to_Lose_Your_Tax_Exempt_Status.shtml<\/a> ).<\/p>\n Note that under the private benefit section on that site it specifically says: \u201cIts activities should not serve the private interests, or private benefit, of any individual or organization (other than the 501(c)(3) organization) more than insubstantially.\u201d (Id<\/i>.)<\/p>\n And the IRS lays out: \u201cTo be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.\u201d\u00a0 (http:\/\/www.irs.gov\/Charities-&-Non-Profits\/Charitable-Organizations\/Exemption-Requirements-Section-501(c)(3)-Organizations)<\/a><\/p>\n So the SCA has to be operated for the exempt purpose (education of the Middle Ages), cannot use any of its earnings to benefit any individual, cannot lobby or be political, and our events have to serve our exempt purpose but can<\/b> benefit our own society.<\/p>\n What this means is there is no particular activity, office, organizational arrangement, belief, totem, monkey or circus that we have to continue to do without fail.\u00a0 We could completely reorganize the SCA as a whole into a full on corporation, or an anarchist commune, so long as we continued to not inure any earnings or lobby the government.\u00a0 We could get rid of fighting, we could get rid of A&S, or we could decide everyone in the SCA has to be a persona from Rome, or Japan, or the back of a van down by the river.\u00a0 We could hold events to educate ourselves and others about the Middle Ages in the same way we do now, or a radically different way.\u00a0 We don\u2019t need knights, we don\u2019t need heralds, we don\u2019t need Kings or Queens\u2026unless we want them.\u00a0 And I do.<\/p>\n Interestingly I can also find no direct policy in the IRS rules about purchasing alcohol, and several government sites from different states talk about how 501(c)3 organizations can serve liquor or obtain liquor licenses (http:\/\/www.tabc.state.tx.us\/marketing_practices\/bulletins\/MPB026a.pdf<\/a> and http:\/\/www.liq.wa.gov\/enforcement\/special-occasion-license-faq<\/a>).\u00a0 NOTE: SCA POLICY PROHIBITS THE PURCHASE OF ALCOHOL WITH SOCIETY OR BRANCH FUNDS, EVEN IF THE IRS DOESN\u2019T.\u00a0 DO NOT DO IT.\u00a0 THIS IS NOT A JOKE<\/b>.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s it.\u00a0 There is a pretty strong list of things we can\u2019t do, and very few of the things we say we have to do are actually required.\u00a0 If you want to change something then advocate for change, and if you want to keep something then advocate for not change.\u00a0 But for the love of BoD, stop saying it\u2019s because of our tax status, or I might blow a gasket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I Got 99 Problems, but: the Society for Creative Anachronism\u2019s Not-for-Profit Tax Status Ain\u2019t One (Note: This post is not aimed at anyone in particular.\u00a0 It comes up a lot). (Note: While this post mainly applies to the SCA, the same thing likely applies to many 501(c)3 organizations). (NOTE: This is not legal advice.\u00a0 Do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dishonoronyourcow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n