As a non-profit organization, you may be used to the idea that most of the income you generate through your organization’s activities is exempt from tax. But as every accountant knows, when it comes to the tax law, there are always exceptions to every exception and exemptions from every exemption. Or should we say exceptions to every exemption. Anyway, you get my meaning.
In the case of non-profit organizations one of those exceptions to the general rule of tax exemption is something called “Unrelated Business Taxable Income”. Nonprofit boards and management should be aware that it is out there and that it might be applicable to their organization depending on the kind of activities it carries out.
First, let’s get clear on a couple of acronyms that might otherwise be confusing:
UBTI = Unrelated Business Taxable Income
UBIT = Unrelated Business Income Tax
What is Unrelated Business Taxable Income?
If your non-profit is carrying on activities that are not related to the tax-exempt purpose of your organization, any income from that activity might be deemed to be UBTI and subject to income tax.
Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) is applied to any income generated by commercial activities that don’t fall within the scope of your non-profit’s exempt purpose (remember, that purpose you declared you were dedicated to when you applied for your exempt status with the IRS). So if you’re bringing in revenues that don’t directly benefit your charitable cause, it’s likely that you’ll have to pay UBIT on this income.
How UBTI can impact your organization
If your non-profit hasn’t considered the potential impact of UBI, it can come as quite a shock when the IRS comes knocking and you are required to pay over an unbudgeted amount to cover tax costs and possibly penalties and interest.
How does an organization guard against this rude surprise? By finding an advisor who understands not only the exceptions to the exceptions but the exceptions to the exceptions to the exceptions.
With proper planning UBTI can be avoided or at least properly planned for. For instance:
- By restructuring an activity so that at least 85% of the labor involved in the activity was provided by unpaid volunteers, we were able to allow a client to avoid UBTI characterization even though the activity was otherwise unrelated.
- Another client involved in a profit splitting agreement with an insurance company had been reporting UBTI and paying tax for number of years. As the revenue grew, so did the tax. We assisted the client in structuring their contractual relationship with a new insurance company so that the majority of income was in the nature of royalty income, a kind of income that under most circumstances is excluded from UBTI. The result has been a tax savings of thousands of dollars.
Talk to us about your UBTI concerns
If you’re running a non-profit organization and are concerned about the potential impact of UBTI, we can help you to review your activities for UBTI potential and discuss the possible ways you can restructure the activities to place them outside the scope of UBTI or reduce any tax liability.
Contact us at Checkbox and arrange for a chat.