Comments on: Accountants Sue Charity for Firing

By: San Antonio Employment Law Blog

San Antonio Employment Law Blog — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:09:24 +0000

Private Sector Employees Have no WhistleBlower Protection…

Under the scenario reported at Taxgirl website, Texas would not protect these whistle blowers. In this case, filed in Oklahoma, two accoutants reported to their boss, a charity, that the charity (Feed the Children) owed back taxes for several……

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Too bad. In Texas, there is no private whistle blower law. There is one for public employees (ie, state and local government), but not private employees. I hope for their sakes that Oklahoma has some better protection.

By: ThomasT

ThomasT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:52:43 +0000

The memo in the court filing that Mary linked makes mention of a partial exemption from use tax that the two accountants applied for on behalf of the organization.

However, sales tax exemption is a state issue, and different states have different policies as to whether and how nonprofits get sales tax exemption. In PA, for instance, charities have to apply separately from their federal 501(c)(3) to the state for sales tax exemption, and have to demonstrate that they are a “purely public charity.” I don’t know of any cases of 501(c)(3)s that have not met that threshhold, though I do know of several that have had to appeal an initial denial of their application, sometimes through multiple layers of bureaucracy. And there probably are some 501(c)(3)s that don’t get sales tax exemption.

Now, whether or not that’s good tax policy is of course a different question.

By: David England

David England — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:28:37 +0000

Why should the charity, if they are a true charity, have to pay any use or sales tax. This is good example, of the attutide of people in this country.
The true issue is the children, all the other issues going on are foolishness!

The Feed the Children is doing what I government (federal and State) should have been doing all a long.

David England

By: ThomasT

ThomasT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:23:04 +0000

Feed the Children would have had to have their own whistleblower policy to submit with their 990 for the last year or two. Would that not have some bearing on this case? Even though the whistleblower policy is a Federal requirement, the policy is intended to govern the actions of the organization in any US jurisdiction, and should trump at-will employment laws (in my non-lawyer lay person opinion). At the very least, FTC should not be able to asset that they are in compliance with their own whistleblower policy next year. Assuming, of course, that the policy indicates that reporting to the Board is an acceptable next step after not succeeding with one’s supervisor.

By: Accountants Sue Charity for Firing | taxgirl - Charity Central Guide

Accountants Sue Charity for Firing | taxgirl - Charity Central Guide — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:53:40 +0000

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By: Kelly

Kelly — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Thanks for the quick catch, Mary. I made the change.

I also appreciate the link. After reading the actual filing, I still believe it’s an iffy case, at best, unless there is something in OK law that protects whistleblowers.

By: Mary O'Keeffe

Mary O'Keeffe — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:57:55 +0000

Wow, what a fascinating case. I googled and came up with this article
http://newsok.com/feed-the-children-may-owe-oklahoma-1.1m/article/3409857

The article links to a PDF of the court filing, which you can find here:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.newsok.com/documents/o16ftclawsuit.pdf

Also, in line 3 of the last paragraph of your post, I think you meant to write “favorable to employERS” rather than “favorable to employEES.”

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:25:16 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by taxgirl: Lawsuit alleges tax fraud, wrongdoing at Feed the Children: http://bit.ly/11jrjB...

By: Tweets that mention Accountants Sue Charity for Firing | taxgirl -- Topsy.com

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:14:22 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kelly Phillips Erb, Marsha Epstein. Marsha Epstein said: RT @taxgirl: Lawsuit alleges tax fraud, wrongdoing at Feed the Children: http://bit.ly/11jrjB Shameful. [...]