Funds paid for member's funeral

[gfpstaxes]

 A non-profit Little League association paid $5,124 for the funeral of one of their members. Can this be entered on line 10 of the 990-EZ, "Grants and similar amounts paid", even though technically it was not a grant, but simply benevolence?

[qbteachmt]

Benevolence is not a tax term nor a not-for-profit program for a Little League operation. If they are 501(c)(3), nothing is supposed to benefit a single member directly. If they are covered under group exemption, I would contact their parent organization and ask for guidance.

It would be helpful if they had raised and used funds earmarked for this event.

This one can get messy.

[gfpstaxes]

By Parent Organization, you mean like "Little League International" ?

[qbteachmt]

Yep.

[sjrcpa]

What does "one of their members" mean? A player, a coach, umpire, director?

[gfpstaxes]

I was mistaken about the details, but now I've got the story. The death was of a 3 or 4 year old girl who came to a game. A bottle rolled under a car and the girl went to retrieve it and the car moved and killed her.  Does that give some clarity as to where the expense goes. I don't believe it was anything formal like a lawsuit, the League just paid for part of the funeral expense.

[qbteachmt]

That's good, then, to clarify it's not a member. Also, it's over $5k, so you are going to need Schedule O. This assumes they paid the family; or, they paid the Funeral Director operation? Or? And paid for Funeral, not Burial costs?

[gfpstaxes]

$5,000 was paid to the funeral home and there was also a flower arrangement purchased for $124.

So you're saying I can put this on line 10 even though it's not technically a grant? How would I describe it on Schedule O?

[qbteachmt]

"$5,000 was paid to the funeral home and there was also a flower arrangement purchased for $124."

Then you don't need Sched O for this, for Feds. From Form 990-EZ instructions:

"List on Schedule O (Form 990 or 990-EZ) each grantee organization or individual to whom the organization made grants (or paid similar amounts) in excess of $5,000 during the organization's tax year."

"I can put this on line 10 even though it's not technically a grant?

It is not programmatic, so I think I would use line 16. Somewhere I have a Form = Line = Chart of Accounts reference, but cannot find it right now. I would control this with UCOA 7050, if that helps.

The flowers would be non-program supplies. And your State might have different financial reporting limits for needing to provide details.

[qbteachmt]

Ha! I found it. It was provided to me by United Way; they have Form 990, 990EZ, OMB A-122, and United Way of America Accounting Guide, all columns as cross-referenced. I see the 7XXX expenses are still identified as personnel related direct assistance (that's grants, scholarships and specific assistance to/for/on behalf of members) and that's Line 10. Line 16 is Other, and includes "business" expenses (not management and admin, and not programmatic).

Here's a similar reference table:

http://help.sage50.na.sage.com/en-us/2017/sage50us/Content/GL01/the_unified_chart_of_accounts_and_fo...

[gfpstaxes]

Thanks, that makes sense. Although I'm still concerned because that's not part of their "mission statement," so to speak. It's certainly a defensible position though.

[gfpstaxes]

It turns out I have to fill out Schedule O to have an amount on line 10 of the 990-EZ if I want to e-file it. I don't understand what it is asking for when it asks for the "Class of Activity"

Can anyone help me with this?

[qbteachmt]

Why are you back to Line 10? You did not pay the family nor the dead person, right?

"$5,000 was paid to the funeral home"

Here's how we left it:

"identified as personnel related direct assistance (that's grants, scholarships and specific assistance to/for/on behalf of members) and that's Line 10. Line 16 is Other, and includes "business" expenses (not management and admin, and not programmatic)."

Was this spectator also a member?